How we work

The flow

1. You complete the eligibility checker (1 to 2 minutes). Soft search only at this stage.
2. The matcher scores each lender on our panel against your inputs.
3. You see the lenders ranked by likelihood of approval for your specific profile, with each lender's typical ticket band and decision time.
4. You pick the lender(s) you want to take forward and complete a full application.
5. The lender runs their own underwriting (which may involve a hard search) and returns a decision.

What the matcher scores on

• Entity type (Ltd, LLP, partnership of four or more).
• Trading time (months since incorporation).
• Annual turnover band.
• SIC code and broad sector.
• Ticket size requested.
• Use of funds (working capital, asset purchase, growth, post-decline alternative, VAT bill, etc.).
• Credit profile signals (CCJ, missed payments, thin file, pre-revenue, none of the above).
• Any sector-specific lender restrictions (high-risk verticals, regulated trades).

Matcher weights

Three weighted criteria decide ranking, in order of importance:

1. Eligibility fit (60%). Hard pass/fail filter on the lender's stated criteria. A lender that does not accept the applicant's sector or ticket size is dropped before scoring.
2. Approval probability (30%). Conditional on passing eligibility, what does our panel-conversion data say about how often this lender approves applicants like this?
3. Commission tier (10%). Tie-breaker only. A higher-paying lender ranks above a lower-paying one only when the eligibility fit and approval probability are materially equal.

The current weights are version 1.0 (April 2026). When weights change, the version stamp moves and the change is logged in this page footer.

The lender panel

FundBiz is building a UK panel covering mainstream loan, MCA, asset finance, commercial mortgage, bridging, VAT and R&D specialty lenders. The full list of named lenders, the products each is on the panel for, and any sector restrictions will be published on this page as the panel goes live.

Every lender we name is checked against the official register at Companies House: registered name, company number, status and incorporation date. We do not list a lender whose entity we cannot verify. The same verification discipline now runs the other way too: see how Companies House identity verification affects lender comfort on your application, and browse the structured UK business finance lender index behind the panel.

Panel disclosure is a live working document. As of the date below, the panel is in the build-out phase. Next milestone: publishing the named lender list with product mapping.

How we research and who writes this

Every page is desk research against primary sources, scored and reviewed on a fixed cadence. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, fact-check and date each guide, and the author page covers Oliver Mackman, who writes and reviews the FundBiz library. Terms we use throughout are defined in the business finance glossary.

How we reference base rate

Where a product prices off the Bank of England Official Bank Rate (asset finance, commercial mortgages, term lending), we read the live rate from the Bank of England Statistical Database rather than hardcoding a figure, so the rate shown in the site-wide ticker never drifts out of date. Merchant cash advance does not price off base rate; it uses a fixed factor rate, which the MCA factor-rate to APR converter turns into a comparable annualised cost.

Limited companies only

We accept applications from UK limited companies (Ltd), limited liability partnerships (LLP) and partnerships of four or more members. We do not accept sole traders or unincorporated businesses on this site. The reason is partly regulatory (commercial lending to a body corporate is generally outside the FCA perimeter; consumer credit to sole traders is not, falling under the Consumer Credit Act 1974) and partly practical (our lender panel is tuned to corporate borrowers).

What we do not do

• Charge the applicant. The lender pays our commission; you pay nothing.
• Run a hard credit search at the matching stage. Soft search only until you submit a full application to a chosen lender.
• Offer regulated financial advice. The matcher routes; it does not advise.
• Sell your contact details. Lenders we introduce you to receive your application data; that is the introduction. We do not sell leads to anyone outside that flow.