Financial technology · Small-business lending
Capital has a path. We build for the lenders in the middle of it.
Federal funds become community loans become Main Street businesses. CircumFi builds the software that helps mission-driven lenders underwrite faster and deeper, see borrower change in real time, and act while both sides still have options.
Follow the money
01 · The funders
It starts as an award on a federal ledger.
The CDFI Fund and the SBA move billions toward mission lenders, unevenly and traceably. We extract, validate, and publish the award data so the whole chain can see where capital enters.
Figure 1
12,633
CDFI Fund award records since 1996, extracted and validated
$947.4M
in CDFI Fund grants to matched SBA microloan intermediaries nationally, since 1996
02 · The lenders · where CircumFi works
CDFIs turn awards into loans. We help them see the whole loan life cycle.
Proactive portfolio management, from the first file to the final payment. Missed payments are lagging indicators, so we surface change in a borrower’s cash flow in real time and route it to your team while there is still room to act. Your credit staff decides what happens next.
Underwrite
Faster files, deeper reads
Real cash-flow evidence adds a dimension conventional credit screens miss, and it arrives with the file rather than after it.
Close
A smoother path to a decision
Verified data moves an applicant from file to funding with fewer paperwork eddies.
Monitor
See change before the missed payment
Deposits, balances, and how cash actually gets used shift long before a payment is late. We surface those moves in real time, both the strain and the strength.
Act
A signal opens a conversation
Strain reaches your servicing team while options remain. Strength surfaces a borrower who may be worth a renewal conversation. Your team decides whether and how to respond.
Midstream · Maple & Main BakeryIllustrative
Account link
Verified
Payments
Current, none missed
Recent change
Deposits easing, owner draws rising
Next step
Flagged for lender review
03 · The businesses
It reaches a counter, a kitchen, a garage.
Every record in our data and every metric in our software stands for a person getting a loan a bank wouldn’t make. Once the loan funds, that money keeps moving through the business, and how it moves is what we read.
Equip
The second oven
An equipment loan doubles a bakery’s capacity. Cash tightens first, then production climbs. Deterioration and investment can look alike for a while.
Bridge
Payroll through August
A working-capital line carries a childcare center across the gap between enrollment seasons.
Steady
The third mechanic
A modification agreed early keeps an auto shop current, and hiring.
Representative of the borrowers CDFI lending reaches, not client stories. Real borrower stories and photography come later.
04 · The proof
We show our work.
Original analysis of where mission capital flows and where it doesn’t, built from public data with sources you can inspect. It is how we learned the system we build for.
Thirty years of CDFI Fund awards: New York got 966, the Hudson Valley got 42
Ten years of SBA microloan intermediaries, standardized
The loop closes
Loan repayments that stay current become the fund’s next loan. The same portfolio record can streamline reporting to funders and stakeholders, supporting a CDFI’s case for the next round of capital.
From the founder
Small-business lenders don’t need bigger platforms. They need right-sized tools, built by someone who has sat on your side of the file review.
Sean Stewart has spent two decades in banking and finance, including Bank of America, Citizens Bank, First Niagara Bank, HSBC, Chase, and BNY Mellon, across consumer and business lending, credit analysis, and portfolio management. He currently serves as Chief Credit Officer of GoodBread and lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.
— Sean Stewart, Founder
If you move capital along this path, let’s talk.
Lenders weighing their stack, vendors exploring fit, contractors who want in on the work. It starts with a conversation, not a demo script.
Talk to us