Anyone have a list of conventional lenders with experienced in lending to ETA?

searcher profile

March 10, 2026

by a searcher from IESE Business School in New York, NY, USA

I've had multiple businesses close to LOI that require a license and wasn't able to get them under contract due to owner PG risk with SBA loan. I have one solid lender who is comfortable in this space, but looking for recommendations of others who come highly recommended? Willing to exchange notes! Thanks, Matt
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Reply by a professional
from Yeshiva University in New York, NY, USA
I represent a bunch of these as their outside counsel. Happy to discuss
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Reply by a lender
from Eastern Illinois University in 900 E Diehl Rd, Naperville, IL 60563, USA
We are a Commercial Loan Brokerage Shop and we do work with conventional lenders as well on business acquisitions. However, the conventional lenders have the same sort of concerns regarding licensing that the SBA has. I just post the below on another feed for reference. Of course being sure you have the license in place at closing to operate any technical business you acquire is going to be required by any sort of lender, and is certainly a condition of getting an SBA 7A loan. However, what is required by individual SBA lenders varies quite a bit. The preference is always that the owner / guarantor has the license or is on a short path to get that license. However, when that is not possible (maybe it takes years to get the license), you can still get the transaction done without the owner / guarantor having the license under the following circumstances: 1) An owner of the business is not required by state law to be the licensee. If this is the case, then you would need to bring someone into the transaction and provide them with ownership or give an existing employee ownership that has the license to be sure you meet this state requirement. 2) You can rely on the seller's license for up to a year (so long as it is allowed by state law) but most lenders are going to require you to have a backup to that seller like a key employee or someone outside the organization that can replace that license in the interim. 3) My typical recommendation to clients is to provide the lender with multiple avenues for you to maintain the license. These might be the following: a) the seller will maintain the license for one year; b) during that time I as the owner can get the license; c) or during that time a key employee can get that license and I plan to give them equity; d) or I plan to hire someone with the license and give them equity; e) or there are multiple people in the business with the license so I do not need to give anyone equity as they can maintain it. The more paths you have to easily keep the license, the less risk the lender sees. Lastly, please keep in mind if a key employee holds the license, there is a chance the Bank will want that employee to sign at least a limited guarantee on the loan or they may want that employee to have some equity in the company. Lenders want this to ensure that key employee will not leave suddenly and leave you without a business you can operate because you do not have the necessary license. Keep in mind some Banks will not do the deal at all unless an owner / guarantor holds the license. I hope this helps. If you would like to discuss licensing further, you can reach me here or directly at redacted
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