Fundwise Capital Review

Pros

• Financing is available to qualified startups
• Multiple types of financing available
• Long-term financing options available
• No collateral required

Cons

• High credit score requirements
• Rates can be expensive
• Funds can take a while to disburse
• Website advertising is not informative

What Is Fundwise Capital?

Fundwise Capital is a Utah-based financial service company that specializes in helping new businesses find funding. Fundwise Capital does not directly lend to businesses. Instead, Fundwise Capital is a marketplace lender that attempts to connect qualified customers with third-party funders.

Fundwise makes its money through a combination of fees charged to clients, fees charged to Fundwise partners, and its credit counseling program. But is Fundwise a good deal?

That really depends on how good you are at digging up sources of funding on your own. Fundwise will probably be most useful for individuals with great credit who don’t have the time, connections, or experience necessary to access financial resources. For those folks, Fundwise is a pricey but helpful service.

Services Offered By Fundwise Capital

Fundwise Capital offers installment loans and lines of credit, as well as business credit cards. Compared to other marketplace lenders, Fundwise offers a smaller number of lending options. This paired with a lack of mobile apps gives Fundwise a 3.3/5 star rating for this section.

Fundwise Capital Borrower Qualifications

Fundwise Capital is available in all 50 states and supports a large variety of business types. However, the company is not very transparent about eligibility requirements. While it isn’t abnormal for marketplace lenders to be less transparent since borrower qualifications vary between all their lending partners. That being said, other companies like Lendio still provide a lot more detail in this area.

The only certainty when it comes to Fundwise Capital is that you’ll need a credit score of 650-700, depending on the type of financing you’re going for. If you don’t meet these criteria, you can bring on a credit partner with a 650-700+ credit score or look at other options like the best loans for bad credit.

Fundwise Capital Terms & Fees

In the past, Fundwise Capital was much better at disclosing rates and fees. Unfortunately, the company now provides hardly any information at all. The only thing you’ll find is an interest-free window on certain lending options.

While I don’t expect marketplace lenders to disclose all specifics (it’d be impossible to give the rates and fees of every lender a company works with), I do expect some information regarding interest rate ranges and applicable fees. In Fundwise Capital’s favor, there are several positive reviews regarding rates and fees. All in all, Fundwise Capital earns a 3.3/5 star rating for this section.

Fundwise Capital Application Process

The application process begins online for Fundwise Capital. Your credit rating will be an important factor for any financial product you apply for, though how much it matters will vary.

For Fundwise, your credit rating is everything. In fact, the company requires you to open a credit monitoring account and asks for the results of your personal credit inquiry. That might sound a little weird, but it works around having to do a hard pull on your credit. You may also be asked for proof of income.

Fundwise advertises a “10 to 21-day funding time” to get your money, which is pretty slow for an online lender. Hence, the 2.0/5 star rating for this section.

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Fundwise Capital Sales & Advertising Transparency

Fundwise doesn’t disclose too much information on its website beyond some basic information about what the company offers. Considering how niche its service is, Fundwise would do well to divulge more information upfront.

That said, Fundwise does provide enough information to get a general sense of the products it can link you with, though you won’t find many other specifics without starting an application.

Fundwise Capital Customer Service & Technical Support

Fundwise can be reached through its website — by email, by phone, or through social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube).

Though it’s not exactly customer service, Fundwise offers a paid credit counseling service called Fundwise Optimize that can help businesses qualify for more funding.

Customer reviews of customer service are generally positive, though we would like to see an actual Knowledge Base or Help Center for customers.

Fundwise Capital User Reviews

Despite the lack of sales transparency, there are a lot of happy customers with Fundwise Capital. There are still some negative reviews, but overall the company has more positive feedback than negative and gets an overall section rating of 3.9/5 stars.

Negative Fundwise Capital Reviews & Complaints

Here are some of the complaints regarding Fundwise:

• Advertising Issues: Many of the complaints revolve around customers believing, or being told, that they would qualify for more funding than they actually were.
• Difficult To Qualify: With the high credit requirements, many prospective business owners simply won’t qualify. And the ones who do could probably qualify for lower-cost forms of financing, such as an SBA loan.
• Lack Of Transparency: Related to the advertising issues, some customers appear to have been lured by the promise of funding only to be hit with sales pressure to enroll in the Fundwise Optimize program to improve their chances.

Positive Fundwise Capital Reviews & Testimonials

The response to Fundwise has largely been positive. The company currently rates 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot, with 228 reviews. Here are some of the things Fundwise customers liked about their experience:

• Low Impact On Credit: Though the company’s method of checking your credit is unusual, Fundwise avoids doing any hard pulls of your credit.
• Fast: For the type of lending it can connect customers to, Fundwise is pretty quick.
• Customer Service: Many customers felt the assistance they received from Fundwise staff was helpful, and that staff was knowledgeable and available.

Final Verdict: Is Fundwise Capital Worth It?

For new entrepreneurs with good credit, Fundwise can make a significant impact, especially if you qualify for zero interest during your first year. The fact that the funding is all unsecured, too, can be a difference-maker for individuals who don’t have significant assets to use as collateral. The 10-21-day funding time is a bit slow but still a respectable turnaround for startup funding.

There are a few points of caution, however. If you don’t want to sign up for a credit monitoring service, or if you aren’t prepared for Fundwise’s fees, you could easily find yourself in over your head. Also, beware of being upsold on credit counseling unless it’s something you think would be beneficial for you.

Prefer to avoid the middleman? Check out how to apply for an SBA startup loan or a startup grant. If you have a few months of business under your belt, you could qualify for a small business loan. We can also help guide you through the world of business credit cards.

Business Loan & Funding Products Review Methodology

We spend hours researching and evaluating each business loan and funding product that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate our ratings.

When rating lenders and funding providers, we use a 31-point rubric that looks at rates and fees, services, eligibility requirements, application, sales and advertising transparency, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating. This rubric is applied to traditional term loans, as well as short-term loans, start-up loans, lines of credit, online lending products, merchant cash advances, and equipment financing products.

• Rates & Fees: 20% of the total star rating
• Services: 20% of the total star rating
• Eligibility Requirements: 20% of the total star rating
• Application: 15% of the total star rating
• Sales & Advertising Transparency: 10% of the total star rating
• Customer Support: 5% of the total star rating
• User Reviews: 5% of the total star rating

Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we examine specific attributes like terms lengths, conditions of repayment, credit score and revenue requirements, ease of application, length of time to funding, the ethics involved in promoting the lending product, customer support, and the overall reputation of the lender or funding provider.

Read more about how we rate small business lenders.

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