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Fundera

Lender or loan platform

PPP
Type
Company or group
Role
Lender or loan platform
Programs
PPP
Updated
  • Type: Online marketplace that matched small businesses with lenders and loan products. It was not a PPP lender of record.
  • Legal entity: Fundera, Inc., New York; acquired by NerdWallet in October 2020.
  • Founded: 2013, by Jared Hecht, a co-founder of GroupMe, with Andres Moran and Rohan Deshpande.
  • CEO: Jared Hecht, through the NerdWallet acquisition.

Identity and role

Fundera connected small-business owners with funding providers and earned its money from the matching, not from holding loans. NerdWallet's acquisition release called it "the most trusted online marketplace that connects small business owners with the best funding providers for their businesses." In the PPP it sat upstream of the lenders: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's guide to fintech PPP options listed it among companies "assisting with the preparation of PPP applications and then sending those applications to partner banks that are SBA-approved," separately from the lenders themselves.

Background

The founders launched Fundera in 2013 "to bring transparency, accountability, and fairness to the online lending industry," in NerdWallet's words. According to deBanked, it raised $3.4 million in 2014 and $15.5 million in 2015.

Pandemic role

On March 24, 2020, Hecht signed, as "Co-Founder & CEO, Fundera," the fintech coalition letter to congressional leaders that backed the draft stimulus text allowing "small business non-bank lenders to quickly advance capital to struggling businesses within hours rather than weeks" and asked Congress to give Treasury flexibility "to inject upwards of $500 billion in discretionary funding into small businesses."

Fundera took PPP applications on its own site and passed them to SBA-approved banks and lenders. "Our PPP application is 100% free for business owners," its guide to banks accepting PPP applications said on April 9, 2020, adding that "we'll be able to direct your application to the lender with the most bandwidth." The description on its PPP page read the same in May 2020 and in January 2021: "Fundera's accepting Paycheck Protection Loan applications and submitting to our vetted SBA partners." Two payroll companies named it as a PPP partner. Paychex announced on April 21, 2020, after the first $349 billion ran out on April 16, that its clients could complete applications through Biz2Credit, Fundera or Lendio. Gusto's post on its PPP program, published April 23, 2020 and updated September 3, 2020, listed Fundera among the "large-scale lenders" it had partnered with. None of these pages says how many applications Fundera routed or whether lenders paid it for them.

Hecht's open letter, addressed "To my fellow entrepreneurs" and updated April 2, 2020, said that "at Fundera we are being particularly prudent—removing existing and upcoming non-essential expenses." He wrote that "we've seen demand skyrocket as small business owners look to stockpile cash," and that some lenders Fundera worked with "have paused all lending for the time being." Neither Fundera's posts nor NerdWallet's filings give a layoff, furlough or pay-cut figure for Fundera. When NerdWallet announced the purchase, it said "all of Fundera's employees will be joining NerdWallet."

Fundera also surveyed small-business owners. In its July 2020 survey of 526 owners, 55% said the PPP money they received was not sufficient, and 63.5% said they had never laid staff off. In an October 2020 survey of PPP recipients, 74% said they had not yet applied for forgiveness.

Own relief: Fundera's PPP loan

Fundera, Inc. took a PPP loan of its own: $2,556,945.25, approved April 13, 2020, ten days after the program opened, for a company that reported 79 jobs (SBA loan number 5222477102); $2,367,563.25 of it was listed for payroll. The SBA's data lists the originating lender as Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, N.A., and the servicer as First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company. The SBA forgave $2,581,591.11, principal plus interest, on April 8, 2021, and the loan is recorded as paid in full.

The sale to NerdWallet

NerdWallet announced on October 30, 2020 that it had acquired Fundera, its second acquisition of the year, to "expand its financial guidance and financing options for small business owners." The price was not disclosed at the time. NerdWallet's S-1, filed October 8, 2021, put the closing price at $29.2 million in cash, $4.6 million of it held in escrow, plus up to $66.0 million in earn-outs tied to Fundera's revenue and profitability in 2021 and 2022. NerdWallet valued the earn-out at $35.9 million at closing, $35.2 million at the end of 2020 and $54.7 million at the end of 2021. Outside the purchase price, it booked a further $2.7 million of earn-outs that depended on the recipients' continued employment, and replaced certain Fundera employees' stock options with restricted stock units valued at $1.9 million.

The 2022 earn-out paid in full. NerdWallet's 10-K for 2022 reported that "Fundera's revenue and profitability milestones for 2022 have been achieved" and recorded the liability at the full payout of $30.9 million; its 10-K for 2023 says the liability was paid in full during 2023. NerdWallet also paid $30.5 million of earn-outs in 2022 for Fundera and a UK acquisition, Know Your Money, together; the filings do not split that figure. Counting only amounts the filings assign to Fundera, NerdWallet paid at least $60.1 million: $29.2 million at closing and $30.9 million for 2022. Its 10-K for 2022 also reported a 130% increase in small-business products revenue that year, "following our acquisition of Fundera." The House Select Subcommittee's December 2022 report on fintechs in the PPP does not mention Fundera, and we found no enforcement action or lawsuit against it in our archive.

Where it is now (2025–2026)

Fundera's website was still live in June 2026. Its PPP page, as of June 25, 2026, says the program is closed and invites visitors to start a Fundera application for other loan options.

  • Jared Hecht, co-founder and chief executive, and signatory of the March 2020 letter
  • Lendio, a larger small-business loan marketplace
  • SmartBiz, a marketplace that also worked with SBA lenders

Sources

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