Lenderfit

Lending software that helps mission-driven lenders say "yes" more often — born from our own character-based lending work.

Lenderfit is cloud-based loan origination and servicing software built for CDFIs and mission-driven lenders, an intuitive, mobile-friendly platform that lets small lenders do far more with the teams they have. We founded Lenderfit to scale a hard-won lesson from our own lending, and after helping incubate and launch it, we have since sold our ownership. The company continues today, serving mission-driven lenders across 29 states.

From Kiva to the Growth Loan to Lenderfit

Lenderfit was the third step in a progression that defined our early capital-stack work:

• Kiva came first — we brought Kiva's 0%-interest, crowdfunded microloans to Louisville, Columbus, and Tulsa, learning how powerful character-based lending could be for entrepreneurs the system overlooks.

• The Growth Loan came next — when Kiva's $10,000 cap wasn't enough, we built our own non-collateralized, character-based loan of up to $35,000, where the process is a conversation and trust in the borrower carries real weight.

• Lenderfit was the natural third move. We kept meeting other communities who wanted to run the Growth Loan in their own backyard, but doing character-based lending well at scale required better tooling. So, with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, we built Lenderfit: software that lets any lender deploy a non-collateralized, non-credit-based loan and manage the whole pipeline without drowning in paperwork.

AltCap in Kansas City became the first CDFI to replicate our Growth Loan on the platform, and from there Lenderfit grew into a tool used by CDFIs and mission-driven lenders nationwide.

What Lenderfit does

Lenderfit is an end-to-end platform tailored to CDFI lenders handling loan origination, grant applications, technical assistance, long-term reporting, and loan servicing in one place. It replaces scattered email chains and spreadsheets with a single, secure workflow: applicant and guarantor management, SMS reminders, automated credit memos and closing documents, KYC and fraud checks, and pipeline forecasting. As one lender put it, "We'd have to have another full-time person to accomplish all that we do with Lenderfit."

Our role: Founder and original investor (since exited)

Type: Cloud-based loan origination and servicing software for CDFIs

Status: Active as an independent company; Access Ventures has sold its ownership

Why it mattered to us

Lenderfit reflects a pattern in how we work: solve a real problem on the ground, then build the infrastructure that lets others solve it too. By turning our Growth Loan model into shareable software, we helped more lenders extend fair, character-based capital to entrepreneurs who don't fit the traditional mold. Our ownership chapter has closed, but the tool we started continues to widen access to capital which was the point all along.