Startup business loans
There’s no single “startup loan” product, but real startups do get funded, usually through unsecured lending, asset finance, or a bank’s own capped startup program. Which one fits depends on what you can show a lender.
General information only
Most major banks want 12 to 24 months of trading history before they’ll lend, which rules out a true startup by design. That doesn’t mean funding isn’t available. It means the path looks different: unsecured lending assessed on the founder’s credit and the business’s early trading pattern, asset finance secured by the thing you’re buying, or a lender-specific startup program with its own caps and conditions.
The real question isn’t “can a startup get a loan”. It’s which structure fits a business that doesn’t have years of financials behind it yet.
Can a startup get a business loan in Australia?
Yes, but not through the same door most established businesses use. The bank’s trading-history rule is a policy position, not a judgement on your startup. Non-bank lenders and a handful of bank-run startup programs fill the gap, assessing the founder’s personal credit and the business’s early numbers instead of years of financials.
The startups that get funded fastest come in with a specific ask. Not “some working capital”, but a defined amount for a defined purpose, backed by whatever trading or contract evidence already exists.
What can a startup access?
Two of our existing products do most of the real work here. Unsecured business loans run from $5,000 up to $250,000 as standard, sometimes further for the right profile, assessed on cash flow and the founder’s personal credit rather than years of trading history. Asset finance is often more accessible again for a startup, since the asset itself is the security. A signed works contract and clear cashflow forecasts from your accountant are usually enough to get considered, even without trading history behind it.
Both follow the same security rule as everything else: under $250,000, that’s usually a director’s guarantee (your signature, not your house), not a mortgage over property.
Do banks have startup-specific programs?
Some do. A handful of major and regional banks run dedicated startup loan programs for businesses with an ABN registered less than two years, typically capped in the $10,000 to $50,000 range, with no asset security required and a fixed loan term. They sit alongside the non-bank market, not instead of it. If your ABN is young enough to qualify, ask your bank directly.
What if you’re an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander-owned business?
Indigenous Business Australia runs a different kind of program: a Start-Up Finance Package of up to $150,000, where up to 30% is awarded as a non-repayable grant to purchase business assets, with the remainder structured as a loan over a 7-year term. It’s specifically for businesses at least 50% owned by people of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent, trading less than two years, with under $400,000 in annual turnover. If your business qualifies, go to them directly. It’s a materially better structure than a standard loan.
| What matters | Unsecured loan | Asset finance | Bank startup program |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amount | $5,000 to $250,000+ | Sized to the asset | Typically $10,000 to $50,000 |
| Security | Director’s guarantee | The asset itself | Usually none required |
| What’s assessed | Personal credit, cash flow | Contract or forecast evidence | ABN age, personal credit |
| Best suited to | General working capital | A specific vehicle or equipment purchase | Businesses under 2 years old, smaller amounts |
Cut Through Venture’s data on why debt is looking more attractive to early-stage founders right now.
Sourced data: Cut Through Venture
Is venture capital getting harder to raise in 2026?
For most startups, yes. Cut Through Venture’s Q2 2026 data shows Australian startups raised close to $3.5 billion in the first half of the year, the second-strongest start on record, but that headline number hides a sharp split: this was the slowest quarter for deal volume since before 2020, and sub-$5 million rounds dropped to just 31 deals against a 2025 quarterly average of 56.
In plain terms, the money is going to fewer, larger, later-stage deals, and early-stage founders raising a smaller round are finding it noticeably tougher than a year ago. That’s the environment where debt finance starts making more sense for the right business: it doesn’t dilute you, it doesn’t depend on convincing a VC your sector is the current favourite, and it’s available to a startup that a fund would pass on entirely.
Are people still starting businesses, or has that dried up?
Company formation is at a record. 269,901 new companies were registered in Australia between January and August 2026, up 11.4% on the same months of 2025 and up 42.8% on 2022, according to ASIC’s own registration statistics.
That matters for a startup application, because it’s the opposite of the picture you get from insolvency headlines. More companies are being formed than at any point in the series, and first-time insolvencies fell 3.9% in 2025-26, the first fall in four years. You aren’t applying into a shrinking market.
| New company registrations, January to August | Registrations |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 189,004 |
| 2023 | 196,455 |
| 2024 | 217,589 |
| 2025 | 242,373 |
| 2026 | 269,901 |
Source: ASIC company registration statistics, to August 2026. January to August is used throughout so 2026 is compared like for like against complete years. Registrations count companies, so sole traders and partnerships aren’t included.
One detail to plan around: roughly a third of all new companies each year are registered in June and July, either side of the financial year line. July 2026 alone saw 44,040 registrations, the biggest month in the series.
If you’re registering then, so is everyone else, and a lender assessing a two-month-old entity in August is looking at a queue of them. It doesn’t change whether you qualify, but it’s a reason to have your structure, ABN, GST registration and forecasts in order before you apply rather than after.
What share of new businesses make it?
About half, over three years. Of the 406,365 Australian businesses that started in 2022-23, 49.2% were still operating in June 2026. That’s the number a lender has in mind when a business with under two years trading applies, and pretending otherwise wouldn’t help you.
| Businesses that started in 2022-23 | Started | Still trading June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| With 5 to 19 employees | 8,359 | 64.7% |
| With 1 to 4 employees | 99,446 | 61.1% |
| Companies | 167,148 | 56.1% |
| All new businesses | 406,365 | 49.2% |
| Non-employing | 297,302 | 44.6% |
| Sole proprietors | 172,048 | 39.6% |
Source: ABS Counts of Australian Businesses, survival of businesses that entered in 2022-23, measured to June 2026. Survival counts businesses still operating. A business sold or wound up solvently also leaves the count, so this isn’t a failure rate.
Read the table carefully, because the obvious conclusion is the wrong one. These aren’t independent factors. Sole proprietors are overwhelmingly non-employing, so the structure rows and the size rows are two views of the same underlying thing: how big the business is. Being a company is associated with better survival. It doesn’t cause it, and nothing here says incorporating would change your odds.
What it does explain is why a lender reads a one-person startup differently from a three-person one with the same revenue. If you’re at the bottom of that table, the application has to carry the weight the trading history can’t yet.
What do lenders want to see from a startup?
A clear, specific business plan, realistic cash flow forecasts (ideally from your accountant, not a template), and a clean personal credit history from the founder, since that’s what stands in for the trading history a startup doesn’t have yet. If you’re financing a specific asset, a signed works contract or supply agreement does more for your application than almost anything else. It gives the lender something concrete to assess instead of a projection.
Buying a business rather than starting one? Start with what’s behind the purchase. What do the buyers own, and will they put in a deposit? Then look at what the business itself owns. Non-bank lenders can lend against the business’s own assets, or release capital from a debtor ledger with strong debtors on it, to help fund the purchase. Understand what you’re buying, and be upfront about what you’re willing to put in or put up.
Does your business structure change what you can borrow?
Indirectly, and more than most people expect. Lenders price against base rates, and the base rates differ sharply by structure. The ABS tracked every business operating in June 2022 through to June 2026:
| Structure | Share of businesses | Survived four years | Exit rate 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trusts | 17.7% | 70.7% | 9.5% |
| Companies | 45.2% | 66.9% | 11.8% |
| Partnerships | 7.0% | 65.0% | 11.2% |
| Sole traders | 30.1% | 48.4% | 19.9% |
| All structures | 100% | 61.9% | 13.8% |
Fewer than half of sole traders operating in June 2022 were still trading four years later: 48.4%, against 66.9% of companies. That’s an 18.6 percentage point gap, and sole traders exit at 1.69 times the company rate. When a lender looks harder at a sole trader application, it’s reading that distribution. It’s a base rate, not a judgement about the person in front of it.
What this is not is an argument for incorporating in order to borrow. A company formed last month has no trading history, and history is what a lender is actually buying. You’d be swapping one weak signal for another while adding cost and compliance. Structure should be decided on tax, liability and how you intend to bring people in, with your accountant. Borrowing capacity follows the trading record, not the letterhead.
ABS Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, released August 2026. Survival is measured from June 2022 to June 2026; exit rates are for 2025-26.
When it’s too early to borrow
If the business has no revenue yet, no signed contract, and no clear plan for how the loan gets repaid, taking on debt this early usually adds risk rather than removing it. Sometimes the right answer is to wait until there’s real trading data to show, or to look at whether a grant, like the Indigenous Business Australia package above, fits before taking on a loan at all. If that’s your situation, say so on the call. We’d rather tell you to wait than place a facility that puts the business under pressure from day one.
Not sure which path fits a new business?
Tell us what you’re funding and how long you’ve been trading, and we’ll tell you what’s realistic right now, not just what sounds good.
Compare this against
Not sure a startup loan is the right shape?
Need general working capital, not tied to one asset?
Assessed on cash flow and personal credit, no property security required.
Financing one specific vehicle or piece of equipment?
The asset itself is the security, which often makes it the easiest path for a startup.
Got a full year or more of trading history now?
Once you’re established, a standard term loan usually prices better than a startup-specific facility.
Frequently asked questions
Give us the basics below and we’ll call you within the hour, or at the time you choose, then come back with the two or three offers worth your time.