Funding companies rarely publish what their applicants actually look like. This snapshot does: it is built from the online applications that 238 business owners submitted to FSE (Funding Solutions Experts) through its websites between June 30, 2026 to October 28, 2026, after removing tests and duplicates. It covers what owners said about their business, how much they asked for, when and how they applied, and how many already had funding in place. Every figure comes from our own records; nothing is estimated or surveyed. We update it quarterly.
Key findings
- 93% of business owners who applied for funding online did it from a phone. (n=200)
- Two in three applications (67%) arrived outside weekday business hours. 25% came in on a weekend, and 19% of all applications between midnight and 6 a.m. Eastern. (n=238)
- 70% of applicants said their business brings in $20,000 to $50,000 a month. (n=152)
- Setting aside the form's $75,000 starting value, the median amount requested was $30,000, and 30% of applicants asked for less than $25,000. (n=161 and 234)
- About 1 in 3 analysed bank-statement sets (32%) already showed payments to another funding provider. (n=31 statement sets)
n = the number of unique applicants or statement sets behind each figure. Full definitions are in the methodology.
Who applies for small business funding
Of the 152 applicants who picked a monthly revenue range (July 28, 2026 to October 16, 2026), 69.7% chose $20,000 to $50,000. Owners who chose a lower range, or less than one year in business, were stopped by the form before anything was saved, so they are not in this data.
| Profile | Share | n |
|---|---|---|
| In business 1-2 years | 43.4% | 76 |
| In business 2 years or more | 48.7% | 76 |
How much business owners ask for
The short application starts its amount slider at $75,000, and 31.2% of requests were left at exactly that figure. Without them, the median request was $30,000, with the middle half of requests between $10,000 and $120,000. 30.3% of all applicants asked for less than $25,000.
When and how owners apply
93.0% of applicants used a phone. 25.2% applied on a weekend and another 41.6% on a weekday before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. Eastern, so only about one application in three arrived during standard business hours. The busiest day was Monday.
| Day of week | Share of applicants |
|---|---|
| Monday | 18.1% |
| Tuesday | 12.6% |
| Wednesday | 15.1% |
| Thursday | 11.3% |
| Friday | 17.6% |
| Saturday | 13.0% |
| Sunday | 12.2% |
How many applicants already have funding
We analyse the bank statements applicants upload. Of 40 analysed sets, 31 covered at least two months with readable deposits; the rest did not (for example screenshots or single pages). In 32.3% of those 31 usable sets (about 1 in 3), the statements already showed recurring payments to another funding provider.
Existing funding is common, and it does not rule a business out. Funders look at it alongside revenue and time in business when they decide what they can offer. Our guide to business loan requirements explains what lenders look for.
n=31 usable statement sets; statements analysed August 23, 2026 to October 28, 2026.
What this report cannot tell you
This is one company's data for four months, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a national estimate. A few questions we wanted to answer do not have enough data behind them yet, and we left them out rather than publish a number based on fewer than 10 cases:
- Industry mix: The online forms do not ask for industry (field blank on ~98% of submissions).
- Applicants by state: State is collected only on the full application; no state reaches 10 applicants.
- Share of owners below revenue/time minimums: Submissions screened out by the form's minimum checks are not stored, so the denominator is unknown.
Methodology
Source. Every online form submission saved by FSE's CRM between June 30, 2026 to October 28, 2026: short applications, full applications with bank statements, and callback requests, plus our analyses of the bank statements applicants uploaded. Applications that reached us by phone are not included. FSE's company totals published elsewhere on this site (1,500+ businesses funded) come from our full history and are not recalculated here.
Cleaning. We read 666 submissions and removed internal tests (test names, staff test entries, internal email addresses, fictional phone numbers and records our CRM had flagged as test or junk) and full applications from outside the United States, leaving 320. Submissions that share a phone number or email were merged into one applicant (82 merged), giving 238 unique applicants. Each applicant is counted once.
Definitions. Revenue ranges use the answer choices on the form from July 29, 2026 onward. Device comes from the browser of the first submission (tablets are not counted as phones). Times are US Eastern; business hours mean Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The existing-funding figure comes from our analysis of the recurring payments on each set of statements covering at least two months with readable deposits.
Privacy. Aggregates only: no names, phone numbers, emails, business names, addresses or individual records are published. Any category with fewer than 10 applicants is suppressed, and a percentage is shown only when both the count and the group it comes from have at least 10.
How to cite this report
You are welcome to quote, chart or republish any figure from this report. Please credit FSE and link to this page. Suggested citation:
FSE (Funding Solutions Experts). "Small Business Funding Snapshot 2026." Updated November 14, 2026. https://www.fseb2b.com/business-funding-report
Journalists and researchers with questions about the data can reach us through the about page.
Applying for funding yourself?
FSE (Funding Solutions Experts) is an independent commercial finance brokerage. There is no fee to your business (we are paid a commission by the funding partner) and no credit check to apply; a business generally needs at least 1 year in business and $10,000 or more in monthly revenue. The best preparation is simple: have your last few months of business bank statements ready, complete and readable.