SBA Loan Statistics for Restaurant Businesses
Median SBA 7(a) loan sizes, interest rates, and acquisition financing share for restaurant and hospitality businesses — live FOIA data by NAICS.
Data as of 2025-09-30 · Based on 12,835 SBA 7(a) loans across 5 NAICS codes
Industry Debt Benchmark
Median SBA 7(a) gross approval for Restaurant & Hospitality (FY 2025)
Avg Interest Rate (FY 2025)
9.51%
Acquisitions
12%
Loans (Selected FY)
6,649
+7% vs FY 2024
Loan Purpose Mix
How SBA 7(a) loans in your industry break down by business purpose · FY 2025
12% of SBA loans in your sector fund ownership changes — a signal of consolidation and reinvestment activity.
Typical Loan Size
Interest Rate Trend
All-years avg: 10.35% (FY 2024–2025)
Acquisition Activity in Your Sector
The share and size of Change of Ownership SBA loans signals how active acquisition financing is in your industry.
Acquisition Share
12%
Median Loan
$460,500
Median Rate
9.53%
Median Term
120 mo
23% of acquisition loans involved a franchise brand (e.g. Super 8, Urban Air, One Hour Air).
FY 2025 · 817 Change of Ownership loans · Loan approval ≠ purchase price
Two Markets for Restaurant & Hospitality
Public markets reward scale and liquidity. SMB lending reflects the capital available to businesses your size.
Wall Street
EV / EBITDA
18.7×
EBITDA Margin
19.6%
62 public firms in dataset
Main Street
SMB Multiple
4.0×
Median SBA Loan
$449,248
6,649 SBA loans (latest FY)
Public comps in this sector trade at 4.7× the typical SMB multiple — a size and liquidity discount Main Street buyers rarely escape.
The spread between these markets is the illiquidity and size discount built into SMB economics.
Public industry cost of capital: 8.0%
Important context
SBA loan approvals reflect financing amounts, not business enterprise value. Not all exits or acquisitions use SBA debt — buyers typically combine equity, seller notes, and conventional bank financing.
Data is aggregated and anonymized from SBA FOIA disclosures and Damodaran industry datasets. Public company multiples reflect listed firms and are not direct comparables for most SMB transactions.
See our valuation methodology for how XIT blends FCFF, FCFE, and EV/EBITDA — and why SBA loan sizes are financing context, not a formal appraisal.
What owners should know
Restaurant owners rarely sell for what a spreadsheet says — they sell for what a buyer can finance. SBA 7(a) approvals are the most transparent window into Main Street deal economics for food service: median loan size, rate environment, and how much volume funds change-of-ownership versus working capital. This page aggregates anonymized FOIA disclosures mapped to restaurant NAICS codes, alongside public-company EV/EBITDA for the same sector. Use it to sanity-check buyer conversations, acquisition targets, or reinvestment plans — not as a formal appraisal.