Fora Financial Reviews
Pros
- Provides quick business loans.
- Can lend as little as $5,000.
- Direct lender who keeps loans on their own books.
- Demonstrated compliance standards.
- Low-bar requirements for funding.
Cons
- Do not provide invoice factoring.
- Business Capital Advance segment is an expensive funding option.
- Unsolicited mass mailings & pre-approval inquiries an inconvenience for some.
Fora Financial Reviews
See above info for Fora Financial Reviews. If you are a current or former Fora Financial customer, we’d like to hear from you. How was your experience? Are you a repeat user?
Fora Financial Spotlight
· Headquarters: NYC, New York
· In Business Since: 2008
· Funding Category: Small business lender
· Total Amount Funded: $1 billion+
· Primary Financing Method: Direct Funding
· Popular Offer: Business Loans
Located in Midtown Manhattan, Fora Financial provides small business funding in the forms of small business loans and business capital advances.
Previously known for its MCAs, they appear to be shifting towards working capital business loans and away from capital advances. This is an attempt to service other industries (they name construction and manufacturing businesses) who don’t accept credit cards.
The company was founded in 2008 by two Indiana University grads. Since then, Fora has reportedly helped provide approximately $1 billion in net working capital to nearly 17,000 small businesses. These companies would likely have not qualified for traditional bank financing.
According to figures compiled by debanked, Fora Financial had revenues of over $50 million in 2017.1 The alternative finance company is also a direct lender, keeping the originated loans on its books. In 2015, they received the financial backing of private equity firm Palladium Equity Partners, which has helped enable Fora to lend directly.2
The funding requirements are not particularly stringent. Keep in mind, easy business loans aren’t always the cheapest. Here are Fora’s lending criteria, verified through business bank account statements:
· At least 6 months in business and
· $5,000 per month in credit card sales (for capital advances) or
· $12,000 per month in gross sales (for loan products)
· No open bankruptcies (for loans)
Credit Checks
The nice thing about working with a direct lender if you’re a small business is that 1- they should only pull your credit once and 2- it should be a soft credit check.
We found a negative comment on Fora (from a MyFico forum, unverified) claiming they performed a hard credit inquiry, instead of a promised soft pull (which can damage a Fico credit score). It may have been a communication breakdown so it’s always important to get all correspondence in writing.
There is some confusion with regards to credit checks- a soft pull is often used to get pre-qualified when entering preliminary data. The so-called hard checks are supposed to come with final application approval. Outside of some complaints on direct mailing solicitations, not uncommon in the alternative industry, we found overwhelmingly positive feedback in Fora Financial reviews.
Fora Business Funding Includes:
· SBA Loans
· Construction Financing
· Restaurant Financing
· Small Business Line of Credit
· Service Business Loans
· Business Capital Advances
· Franchise Loans
· Inventory Loans
· Equipment Financing
With Fora’s investment stake in California-based U.S. Business Funding, the company presumably expanded funding capabilities to include vendor financing programs and capital equipment loan and leasing solutions.3 Fora predicts the combination with USBF puts them on track to originate $400 million in loans for 2018.4
How is Fora Financial Different from Factoring Companies?
Fora Financial is not a factoring company and doesn’t appear to offer any invoice financing solutions. This is despite servicing B2B customers that are typical beneficiaries of invoice finance like construction, wholesalers, transportation and manufacturers. Specific businesses that have been funded by Fora Financial include:
· Hotels
· Marketing Agencies
· Salons
· Bakeries
· Restaurant Franchises
· Auto repair shops
· Roofing Companies
· Consultants
Despite having an ample platform, Fora is not considered a financial technology company (like Bluevine, Fundera or Fundbox). As such, the actual funding can take at least 4 days (1 for approval, then 72 hours to funding). While this is lightyears faster than going to a bank, it’s on the slower side compared to some ‘fintechs’ who provide online small business loans.
Fora Financial Pros and Cons
In addition to the Fora Financial reviews above, we reiterate these key pros and cons:
Main Pros:
· Provides quick business loans.
· Can lend as little as $5,000.
· Direct lender who keeps loans on their own books.
· Demonstrated compliance standards.
· Low-bar requirements for funding.
Main Cons
· Do not provide invoice factoring.
· Business Capital Advance segment is an expensive funding option.
· Unsolicited mass mailings & pre-approval inquiries an inconvenience for some.
For more information on Fora Financial:
Who Uses Fora Financial?
Where does their funding come from?
Do they offer specialty financing options?
1https://debanked.com/2018/08/the-2018-top-small-business-funders-by-revenue/
3,4http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/06/prweb15538431.htm