Lendzi Small Business Loans: 2024 Review

At a glance

Who Lendzi is best for

Lendzi accommodates small businesses turned down by traditional lenders or businesses seeking a large amount of funding. Specifically, your business can gain millions of dollars in funding from equipment loans, lines of credit or merchant cash advances. 

Who Lendzi may not be best for

Lendzi may not be the best choice if you’re looking for low-interest business loans. Most loans through the marketplace have higher starting maximum interest rates compared to other lenders. Some loans also use factor rates, known for being more expensive than comparable interest rate loans. 

Lendzi: in the details

Business loan types offered

What we like and what we don’t like

Lendzi can cover an expanse of business loans, made possible by its broad base of 60 partnering lenders. The pros and cons of this loan marketplace include: 

What we like: 

• Flexible loan range. Small business owners can get as little as $5,000 in funding all the way up to $5 million, a wide range flexible enough for a variety of project sizes. 
• Accepts bad credit. Lendzi accepts minimum credit scores at 500 — or lower in some cases. While this standard is common with online lending, traditional banks usually set the standard much higher, such as at 670. 
• Funding within 24 hours. You can finance your business within 24 hours in some cases. This is speedy considering traditional lenders can take several days to weeks to fund. 

What we don’t like

• Mixed loan details from reps. Representatives provided some mixed information about its loans, such as whether or not a personal guarantee is required or what is the bottom-level credit score.
• High rates and fees. Lendzi partners may charge high interest rates in the 30-percent range or opt for factor rates. Factor rates trend toward high borrowing costs because they often convert to high interest rates. 

How Lendzi compares to other lenders

Lendzi offers similar business loans and funding timelines as other loan marketplaces available online. But in some instances, businesses needing bad credit business loans will have more options elsewhere.

Lendzi vs. Fundible

Fundible is similar to Lendzi in that you can apply for many types of business loans, including term loans, business lines of credit and equipment funding. Fundible expands its offering, though, to invoice financing and SBA loans if you’re in the market for those. 

Fundible offers even higher loan sizes than Lendzi, though like Lendzi the loan amounts vary from loan to loan. For example, Fundible’s equipment loan goes up to $10 million versus Lendzi’s $2 million. The exception is Fundible’s business line of credit with limits ranging from $1,000 to $500,000. Through Lendzi, you can access limits between $5,000 all the way to $5 million. 

Fundible takes personal credit scores in the bad-credit range. Officially, most of its business loans allow scores in the 500s. A representative stated that it can work with business owners whose minimum personal credit scores have dropped to 450. 

Lendzi vs. 1West 

1West and Lendzi are both loan marketplaces with dozens of in-network lenders, though Lendzi’s 60 partners slightly beat out 1West’s 50. Both marketplaces accept startups. 1West allows businesses with just three months under their belt, while Lendzi needs a more common six months in business. 

Overall, 1West is the more lenient of the two, especially when it comes to credit score. Most business loans through 1West let you apply with personal credit scores starting at 500 — or even no minimum credit score for accounts receivable financing.  

The main downside is that 1West lenders may deposit funds more slowly than Lendzi partners. 1West states that its lenders’ fastest funding speed is 48 hours, and some loans can take weeks. For Lendzi, the timeline to receive funds is just 24 hours.

How Bankrate rates Lendzi