Guide

Which industries can't get business funding, and why?

A short list is declined almost everywhere: cannabis and CBD, adult entertainment, gambling, firearms and ammunition, payday and other lenders, money services such as check cashing and crypto, debt collection, telemarketing, and nonprofits. The reasons are the funders' own bank and investor rules, federal law in the case of cannabis, and chargeback risk. Everyone else — including trucking, restaurants and construction, which banks often decline — is fundable in this market.

The list, and the reason behind each

Cannabis, including CBD in many programs: federally illegal to touch the proceeds of, so the funders' banks will not process it. Adult entertainment and dating: chargeback and reputational rules from the funders' own bank and card partners. Gambling and fantasy sports: the same, plus state licensing. Firearms and ammunition: the funders' bank and investor policies, not law. Payday lenders, debt collectors, debt consolidators: regulatory exposure. Money services — check cashing, currency exchange, money transmission, crypto: anti-money-laundering rules make them unbankable for most partners. Telemarketing and multi-level marketing: fraud exposure. Nonprofits: no owner to guarantee and no revenue in the sense a funder underwrites.

Each funder publishes its own version of the list and they differ at the edges. Vape shops, hemp, tattoo studios, bail bonds, travel agencies and used-car dealers are declined by some and written by others.

Restricted is not the same as declined by a bank

Banks decline whole categories on their own view of risk — restaurants, trucking, construction, gyms, salons, real estate — and those businesses are the core of this market, not its exclusions. The restricted list above is about legality and the funders' banking partners. The bank's list is about a model that does not like lumpy deposits. Being on the second list is why this site exists; being on the first is a different problem.

If you are on the edge of the list

Say exactly what the business does in the application, in plain terms, with the license if there is one. A funder that finds out in underwriting what an application did not say declines for the omission. A funder that knows up front either writes the category or refers you to one that does, and specialist funders exist for most of the edge cases at their own prices. A hemp retailer, a smoke shop or a bail bondsman is not unfundable; they are fundable by fewer funders.

Sources

Related questions.

Can a cannabis-adjacent business — packaging, software, a landlord — get funded?
Often yes, if the business itself does not touch the plant or its proceeds, though some funders decline anything with the word in it. State it plainly and ask before applying.
Is trucking a restricted industry?
No. Some funders limit exposure to owner-operators because of the breakdown risk, and price it, but trucking is one of the largest categories in revenue-based funding.
Can a nonprofit get any funding?
Not from revenue-based funders, generally. Community development lenders, bank lines secured on pledged funds, and grant programs are the routes; the products on this site are built for owner-operated businesses.

One application · every lender we work with

Find out what you qualify for before you need it.