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Private and alternative lending

Private capital solves for speed and for flexibility, and it charges for both. It is the right answer more often than owners expect and for a shorter period than they expect.

Typical size
$100,000 to $5,000,000
Typical time
Days to three weeks.
Security
Specific charge on the asset

When it fits.

  • A closing date that a bank timeline cannot meet.
  • An asset backed deal where the collateral is strong and the financials are messy.
  • A short bridge between a purchase and a completed refinance.
  • A situation a bank has already declined for a reason that is fixable.

When it does not.

  • A structural shortfall. High cost money does not fix a business that is losing.
  • A borrower already carrying two merchant advances. Adding a third is where files go to die.
  • A deal with no exit. If we cannot see the way out, we say no.

The detail, if you want it.

Open only what applies to you. Nothing here is required reading before a first call.

Start a private review
How it actually works

Private money is a bridge. It buys time to complete a purchase, to close a gap while a bank file is in process, or to fund against an asset a bank will not lend on. The exit matters more than the entry: a private facility with no defined way out becomes an expensive permanent liability.

Cost is real. Rates run well above bank pricing and there are lender fees on top. Section 347 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to receive interest at a criminal rate, which subsection 347(2) defines as an annual percentage rate above 35 percent on the credit advanced. Commercial borrowing sits outside that section only on conditions. Since 1 January 2025 the Criminal Interest Rate Regulations lift it where the borrower is not a natural person, the borrowing is for a business purpose, and either the credit advanced is over $10,000 and up to $500,000 at an annual rate no higher than 48 percent, or the credit advanced is over $500,000, where no ceiling applies at all. Fees paid to a broker count toward the calculation. Stacking several high cost facilities is how a business ends up somewhere it cannot service.

We use it deliberately, we say what it costs before you decide, and we build the exit into the plan on day one.

What a lender will ask for5
  • Six months of business bank statements
  • The most recent financial statements, even if unaudited
  • A schedule of every existing facility and its daily or weekly remittance
  • Asset detail, ownership and any registered security
  • The exit plan and its timing
And what they will ask you4
  • What is the asset worth and who else is registered against it?
  • What is the exit, and what is the date on it?
  • What is the total of all existing remittances against the deposits?
  • Why did the bank decline, and is that reason fixable?
Questions we get about this one3
What does private lending actually cost?
Materially more than a bank, and the lender fee is part of the cost. We put the total cost of capital in front of you as a dollar figure over the term before you decide, not as a rate.
Will taking a private facility hurt my bank relationship?
It can, because the registration is visible. It is one of the things we map before anything is arranged.
How quickly can it fund?
Where the security is clean and the file is ready, days. The delay is almost always documents, not the lender.
Read about this1

Is private lending the right instrument for your deal?

Tell us the amount and the timing, and we will say which instrument we would reach for.

No lender hears your name until you say so.

A request emailed to twenty lenders leaves twenty records. The next one to see it reads the declines before they read the deal, and a file that looks shopped is priced as one. So the list is built with you, approved by you in writing, and nothing leaves this office before that.

See where you stand
Hours
Weekdays, Toronto time