Yes, you can contribute all of the equity capital. The problem is that the SBA expects you to sign a personal guarantee if you own more than 20% of the company. So you can put in 100% of the cash equity but you can only own < 20% of the company (unless you sign the loan guarantee).

US Citizens need to own 51% of the company and must sign a full personal guarantee for an SBA 7A loan. The non US citizen can own up to 49% of the company. They will be required to sign a personal guarantee if they own over 20% of the company. The equity can come from the non-US citizen. The US Citizen(s) do not need to provide any equity. However, lenders will want to see relatable experience from the US citizen(s) and possibly some fallback support depending on how stressed the deal is. Some might want them to have some skin in the game as well. Happy to discuss any specific opportunities at any time at redacted Thank you and have a great day!