Begin the application

Business funding

Business funding from $5,000 to $1 million

Pick an amount to see your options. One short application, 80+ lenders, and every offer held to the same five tests.

  • No application fee
  • No obligation
  • Same-day funding
  • No collateral required

The application is the way in, and it takes about two minutes.

The Paragon standard

What a good offer looks like, before one arrives

Most bad funding decisions are made in a hurry, on a single number. These five questions take a minute each, and they work on any offer from anyone.

  1. The whole cost, in dollars

    When this is paid off, how much will the business have paid back in total?

    Passes whenOne dollar figure for the total repaid, written down where you can see it.

    Fails whenA rate on its own, with the arithmetic left to you.

  2. A payment the slow week can carry

    Could the business make this payment in its quietest week of the year?

    Passes whenThe daily, weekly or monthly payment, set beside what a slow week actually brings in.

    Fails whenA payment that only works when trade is at its best.

  3. A term the purpose can live with

    Does the money stay borrowed for about as long as it takes to earn its keep?

    Passes whenShort money for a short gap; a longer term for something that pays for itself over years.

    Fails whenA machine with years of working life on a repayment measured in months, or the other way round.

  4. Early payoff, in writing

    If the business repays ahead of schedule, what does that save?

    Passes whenA written answer, whatever the answer is, before you sign.

    Fails when“We can look at that later.”

  5. Nothing paid to see it

    Has anyone asked for money before there is an offer on the table?

    Passes whenApplying, being matched and reading your offers cost nothing at all.

    Fails whenA fee to unlock offers, to hold a place, or to “speed things up”.

You do not have to run the tests alone. Ask your specialist to answer all five for every offer, side by side, and expect a straight answer to each.

The six

Six programmes, one measure

Each is built for a different job. The five tests apply to all of them, but one of the five usually matters more than the rest.

How it works

Three steps, and the deciding stays with you

Short at the start, careful in the middle, and nothing agreed until you say so.

Step I

Send the short application

How much, how to reach you, and a few questions about the business. No documents to gather first, and no fee of any kind.

  • A couple of minutes
  • Free to send
  • No obligation
A florist filling in a form on her laptop among the day's flowers.

Step II

A specialist gathers the offers

Your application goes to our funding partner and a specialist takes it to the lenders most likely to fund a business like yours. What comes back is set out the same way, offer by offer.

  • One application, many lenders
  • Every offer in the same format
  • The total repaid on each
A specialist at his desk, working through a file on screen.

Step III

Hold each offer to the standard

Run the five tests, ask anything, and take as long as you need. Accept one and, once approved, funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours.

  • Five questions per offer
  • Straight answers to each
  • Funding in as little as 24 hours once approved
Two owners reading something on a laptop together before deciding.

What does not bend

Four things that stay the same for every applicant

A standard only means something if it holds when it is inconvenient. These four do.

No cost to apply
Applying, being matched and reading your offers cost the business nothing.
No obligation
Nothing is agreed until you accept an offer, and you are free to accept none.
Businesses only
Paragon arranges funding for businesses. It never arranges personal or consumer loans.
Named recipients
Who receives your application is written in our Privacy Policy, by name, not as “partners”.
An owner in her apron by the shop window, checking orders on a tablet.

The network's figures

The lending network behind every application

80+lenders in the network
25,000businesses funded
24 hrsto funding once approved

These are totals for the lending network Paragon Business Funds works through, not for Paragon on its own.

When you are ready

Bring your offers. Bring your questions.

The application is at the top of this page and on a page of its own. Once the offers are in, the five tests are waiting.

Begin the application

A city riverfront in morning light, offices and a bridge along the water.