Business financing in Travis County.
County-by-county financing guides. No paperwork. No social. No ID.
16 institutions are headquartered inside the Travis County line, Austin included, and 2 more keep a branch here. Below, we say which is which.
Not this lane? Home FinancingPersonal Financing
The doors in Travis County.
The CDFIs, credit unions, and microlenders that actually say yes — county by county, in two languages. We are not a lender. Nobody paid to be listed. And where a county has no good doors, we say so.
- 18
- DOORS HERE
- 16
- BASED HERE
- 99
- TX COUNTIES WITH DOORS
- Lane
- Business Financing
- People
- 1.3Mresidents of Travis County
- Covers
- Austin
- Elsewhere in TX
- Harris County →52 doors — the biggest list of any other county in Texas
- State
- Texas →99 of 254 counties hold a door in this lane
Certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not. Nonprofit, patient, and used to a file that is not clean.
Business and Community Lenders (BCL) of Texas · Business Investment GrowthOwned by their members, not by shareholders. They look at your whole story rather than a score, and that is the difference when a bank says no.
A+ Credit Union · Greater Texas Credit Union- A+ Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Business and Community Lenders (BCL) of TexasCommunity lending · Business capital
- Business Investment GrowthCommunity lending · Business capital
- Five Points Community Capital, LLCCommunity lending · Business capital
- Greater Texas Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- IN THIS LIST
7 of the 18 doors inside the county line are CDFI-certified.
The U.S. Treasury certifies them to lend to the people banks pass over. It is a loan, not a favour.
- PeopleFundSBA microlenderCommunity lending · Business capital
- Texas Community CapitalCommunity lending · Business capital
- The Community Business Investment Fund, LLCCommunity lending · Business capital
Show the other 8Show fewer
- University Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Velocity Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Austin Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Capitol Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Government Employees Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Star of Texas Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Travis County Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Vatat Credit UnionPersonal
Based elsewhere, with a member-facing office inside the Travis County line. You can walk in.
- Nizari Progressive Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Baker Hughes Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Accion Opportunity FundAccepts ITIN
Nonprofit small-business lender. Accepts ITIN in place of SSN. Serves most states, in English and Spanish.
Business capital - Grameen AmericaAccepts ITIN
Microloans for women entrepreneurs. Requires photo ID and proof of address — no SSN requirement. Branches in major metro areas.
Business capital - Mission Asset FundAccepts ITIN
Zero-interest lending circles and credit building. SSN or ITIN accepted. Works through nonprofit partners across the country.
Personal
Nobody paid to be on this list.
The 18 doors inside the county line come off public data, and 12 of them are owned by their own members. We do not ask for your name, and we earn nothing if you knock on one door rather than another.
How to read this list.
We do not ask for your name, your email, or your number. Nothing on this page changes based on who you are.
A door is headquartered here when its head office sits inside the county line. The rest are based elsewhere and keep a branch you can walk into. We list both, and we label which is which.
Every institution on this page comes from public federal data — the CDFI Fund certified list (Aug 2026), NCUA credit union data (Mar 2026), and the SBA microloan intermediary list (Sep 2026) — plus a short national tier we verified by hand. We refresh each list as its agency publishes. No listing is paid.
Travis County runs on the Capitol, the university, the construction pushing out in every direction, and the enormous service economy that feeds all of it — kitchens, crews, cleaning contracts, food trucks, landscape trucks, box trucks. If you work for yourself in any of that, this guide explains what business financing is, who actually qualifies, what documents to bring, and which institutions inside and around Austin lend to small operators, including nonprofits that accept an ITIN instead of a Social Security number.
It's a process, not a rejection.
Business financing is money you borrow to start, run, or grow a business. It comes in a few plain shapes: a term loan you repay on a fixed schedule, a line of credit you draw on when work is slow and leave alone when it is not, a microloan for smaller amounts, equipment financing secured by the truck, trailer, or machine itself, and occasionally a grant you never repay.
Travis County holds roughly 1.29 million people, and Austin sits at the center of it. Three engines drive the work.
The first is government and institutional — the Capitol, state agencies, the university, and the constant renovation those buildings require.
The second is construction: commercial build-outs, apartment and subdivision work pushing east toward Manor and Del Valle and past the county line, campus and data-center projects, and the residential remodel market that follows high property values. The third is the service economy Austin is known for — restaurants and bars, food trucks, catering, event and festival production, hotels, cleaning contracts, landscaping and irrigation, and the delivery and hauling that moves everything else.
What that means for a small operator: most of the money in this county arrives through somebody else's contract.
You are a subcontractor to a general contractor, a vendor to a property manager, a truck on a lot somebody else owns.
That shapes what you need — usually not a big expansion loan, but working capital to cover the gap between finishing the work and getting paid, or equipment to take on the next size of job. Austin is also unusual in one useful way: it has more community development lenders headquartered inside the county line than almost any city its size in Texas, and most people who need them have never heard of them.
Forget what the banks say.
Lenders look at four things: can you repay, what does your borrowing history look like, how long have you been doing this, and does the business make sense in this market. That last one works in your favor — nobody in Austin needs subcontracting, seasonal event work, or a food-truck balance sheet explained to them.
Realistic candidates include:
- 1099 subcontractors — framers, concrete finishers, drywall, paint, tile, roofing, HVAC and electrical subs under general contractors
- Landscaping, irrigation, tree, and pool service businesses with recurring residential and commercial accounts
- Cleaning and janitorial contractors holding accounts with office buildings or property managers
- Food trucks, taquerías, caterers, and small storefront kitchens — a whole ecosystem here, and one lenders in this city genuinely understand
- Event, stage, sound, and production crews whose year has a clear festival and conference rhythm
- Small hauling and delivery operators, plus the trailers and equipment that go with them
- Home-based and storefront services — a barbershop, an auto repair bay, a tax and notary office, a small shop
If you are paid on 1099s rather than a W-2, that is a different documentation path, not a disqualification, and a well-kept business bank account carries most of the weight. If your credit is thin or damaged, the community development lenders below exist for that exact case — several will look at your deposits, your customer list, and your signed work rather than only at a score.
If you hold an ITIN instead of a Social Security number, you are not shut out. Some institutions lend to ITIN holders and some do not, and the only reliable way to know is to ask the institution directly — many CDFIs do.
Get your papers in order.
Gather these before you talk to anyone. It shortens the process, and it changes how you are treated in the room.
- 01**Photo ID** and your **ITIN or SSN**
- 02**Business registration**
Your state entity filing, or your assumed name (DBA) filing with the county clerk
- 03**Sales tax permit** if you sell taxable goods or services
- 04**Two years of tax returns**
Personal, plus business returns if the business has filed
- 05**Three to six months of bank statements**
The business account if you have one; if everything still runs through a personal account, bring it and say so plainly
- 06**1099s** from the general contractors or clients who pay you
- 07**A simple profit-and-loss**
One page you wrote yourself is a real starting point
- 08**One page describing the business**
What you do, who pays you, what the money is for, how you repay it
- 09**Signed contracts
Purchase orders, or a bid schedule.** For a subcontractor this is often the strongest page in the folder
- 10**A list of equipment
Trucks, and trailers** with titles, if you are offering collateral
- 11**Certificate of insurance** and any trade license you carry
- 12**Health permit and commissary agreement** if you run a food truck or mobile kitchen
The doors worth knowing.
Travis County is genuinely well supplied. Several mission-driven business lenders are headquartered in Austin, which is not true of most Texas counties.
ALL 18 DOORS, BY NAME AND BY TOWN- 18
- DOORS HERE
- 118
- ACROSS TX
Based in Austin, Texas. A community development financial institution, certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not, and used to a file that is not clean.
BEST FORCommunity lending where a bank has already said no, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Austin, Texas. Treasury-certified as a CDFI, which is a mandate rather than a courtesy: reaching borrowers the mainstream market passes over is the job.
BEST FORWorking capital, equipment and payroll for a small business, and community lending where a bank has already said no.Based in Austin, Texas. A CDFI — a mission lender, not a branch network. It is measured on who it reaches, which is why a thin file is not the end of the conversation.
BEST FORCommunity lending where a bank has already said no, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Austin, Texas. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.
Don't fall into these traps.
In a city this full of restaurants, food trucks, and subcontractors with daily card volume, MCA brokers work the phones hard. An advance is not a loan — it is a sale of your future revenue at a discount, repaid by daily debits that do not pause when the work does. Legal, and the fastest way to turn a slow month into a closed business. Last resort, never the first call.
A broker offering more money on top of what you already owe is the pattern that ends businesses, not the one that saves them.
Legitimate fees come out at closing, not up front by wire or payment app. Anyone asking money to "hold" or "process" an approval is taking it.
Ask out loud: am I personally on the hook, and what can you take if I fall behind? Get it on paper.
Read what you own at the end of the term. A lease ending with a large balloon payment to keep the machine is not the deal you thought you signed.
Real small-business grants do not require a fee to apply, and no one can guarantee you one. That pitch arrives constantly by text and social media.
No real lender needs your signature today. If the rate expires this afternoon, you have learned everything you need to know.
do you lend to ITIN holders, and do you report my payments to the credit bureaus? A loan that builds no credit history charges you twice.
Everything below is set by Texas, and it reads the same in every county in it. The 18 marks above are this county's own doors — who opens one is decided by them, not by the state.
The rules where you are.
Texas has no personal income tax, so there is no state return to hand a lender — your federal returns and bank statements carry the weight. Operating under a name other than your own means filing an assumed name certificate with the county clerk; an LLC or corporation files with the Texas Secretary of State. Selling taxable goods or services requires a sales and use tax permit from the state comptroller.
Texas licenses electricians, plumbers, and air conditioning contractors at the state level. Many other trades — including general contracting and roofing — are not licensed statewide, though the city or county may still require permits for the specific work. A lender will ask what you hold. "Texas does not license my trade" is a perfectly good answer when it is true; know whether it is.
Texas gives subcontractors and suppliers strong lien rights on private construction jobs — but those rights depend on sending the right notices within strict deadlines, and they are easy to lose by missing one. If unpaid invoices are the reason you need a loan, talk to someone about your lien rights before you borrow against the problem. Fixing the collection may be cheaper than financing around it.
With no state income tax, Texas leans on property taxes, and business personal property — equipment, tools, inventory — is rendered to the county appraisal district. If you own your shop or yard, that bill is a real operating cost, and every appraisal can be protested. Separately, the state's economic development office, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Texas Department of Agriculture run programs touching small businesses, usually through partner lenders or grant cycles; the SBDC network can tell you what is currently open.
The short version.
- 01
Travis County has something most Texas counties do not: several mission-driven community development lenders headquartered right here in Austin, built specifically for the borrower a bank turns down. That is the first call, and it is free to make.
- 02
In order: gather your ID, your assumed name or entity filing, your returns, your bank statements, your 1099s, and a one-page description of the business. Take the package to the SBDC or SCORE for a free review before you apply anywhere. Then get two written offers and compare them line by line, not by the payment alone.
- 03
If what you actually need is to get paid for work you already finished, look at your lien rights before you borrow. Financing around a collection problem costs more than solving it.
- 04
Ask every lender the same two questions: do you lend to ITIN holders, and do you report payments to the credit bureaus? You do not need perfect credit, a Social Security number, or a lawyer to start — you need your paperwork and two unhurried conversations.
Same county, another question.
Home FinancingPurchase, renovation, HELOC, and bridge loans for homeowners and investorsSEE IT IN TRAVIS COUNTY →
Personal FinancingPersonal loans, credit building, and ITIN-friendly financing optionsSEE IT IN TRAVIS COUNTY →99TX COUNTIES WITH DOORSThe whole stateEvery county in Texas, in this same lane.118 institutions fund small businesses inside Texas county lines.OPEN THE STATE →Still don't see your situation?
Ask Iris. She'll explain it the way it should have been explained the first time.