Quantifying the impact of SMB financing
Small and medium-sized businesses consistently identify access to financing as a primary obstacle to growth, and traditional lenders often fail to meet their needs. Stripe Capital was built to address this gap. To measure whether it actually works, Stripe completed a two-year randomized trial comparing businesses that accepted Capital financing with similar Stripe businesses that did not.
The results show a clear effect: businesses that accepted financing grew their revenue on Stripe 27 percentage points faster than comparable peers, on average. The impact was considerably larger for the top performers—the top decile of businesses by growth rate improvement saw an average boost of 211 percentage points.
Establishing causation across two economic climates
Proving that financing causes growth is methodologically tricky. The same characteristics that make a business likely to receive financing—good credit, high revenue, business longevity—also make it likely to succeed without it. Stripe's scale helped solve this problem. In 2025 alone, Capital provided financing to 76,000 businesses, enabling a randomized control trial that compared businesses that accepted financing with businesses of similar credit, revenue, and longevity profiles that did not have access to Capital.
The experiment was run twice to confirm the effect was persistent. The first trial, conducted from 2020 to 2021, found an average boost of 114 percentage points to growth rates. However, that period was shaped by COVID-19-era conditions—low inflation, volatile GDP growth, and a shift toward ecommerce. A second study running from 2023 to 2025, in a markedly different economic environment, still found a strong average boost of 27 percentage points.
Who benefits most from financing
The average effect hides significant variation across business types. Several patterns emerged from the data.
Smallest businesses see the largest gains
For businesses processing between $3,000 and $76,000 annually on Stripe, Capital drove a 33 to 43 percentage point average boost to growth rates compared with peers. The effect was even stronger for businesses processing less than $52,000 annually that also had top-tier business credit scores: they saw a 94 to 106 percentage point average boost.
These very small businesses are often the ones most underserved by traditional banks, which may require extensive documentation and still decline applications at rates approaching 50%—even for established businesses operating over a decade. Stripe Capital's fuller view of payment trends allows for faster decisions and broader access. Financing can be delivered within 1 to 2 days on average, compared with 14 to 40 days at traditional banks. The data also shows growth effects for businesses with low or unavailable credit scores, which saw a boost of 11 to 18 percentage points to growth rates after accepting Capital offers.
Forward-looking use of funds correlates with growth
A follow-up survey of around 900 participating businesses revealed a strong correlation between how funding was used and subsequent growth. Among SMBs with top-tier credit scores, those that used financing for growth-oriented goals—selling new products, starting new projects, or scaling operations—saw boosts of 70 to 95 percentage points on average.
Real-world examples illustrate the pattern. Luis Mayendia, cofounder and CEO of parking reservation company MyPark, used Capital to "scale the business by building and deploying additional machines, which started generating revenue immediately." Richard Blakely, cofounder and CEO of Xirsys, used financing to set up servers in China, India, and Japan, expanding the TURN infrastructure company to new markets and more than doubling annual revenue.
Broader implications for the funding gap
The World Bank estimates a $5.7 trillion gap between funding sought and obtained by SMBs in developing economies. The Capital findings suggest nontraditional lenders can play a meaningful role in closing that gap and growing global GDP.
When financing is integrated into tools SMB owners already use, access broadens beyond simple eligibility. Stripe Capital makes offers proactively based on payment processing data, which can encourage owners to pursue growth opportunities they might not have otherwise considered. As one business owner put it, "I am being cautious about growth—maybe a little too much, but this loan was the right size and helped me take a little risk that I probably would not have taken."
Platforms and marketplaces are especially well-positioned to extend similar financing to the businesses they serve. They see significant growth in their SMBs' impact when financing is part of the picture. Laura Collinson, VP and GM of payments and fintech at Jobber, noted: "Stripe Capital is especially valuable in the current environment—where credit card borrowing limits and lines of credit are being cut. For some, it means filling a short-term cash flow gap; for others, it unlocks the ability to invest in new employees, equipment, or marketing."
Stripe Capital offers financing types that include loans and merchant cash advances. All financing requests are subject to a final review prior to approval. In the US, Stripe Capital loans are issued by Celtic Bank, and YouLend provides Stripe Capital merchant cash advances. In the UK, France, and Germany, Stripe Capital loans and merchant cash advances are provided by YouLend and its affiliates.
