Resources/SBA Market Pulse/SaaS & Software
Live SBA FOIA Data

SBA Loan Statistics for SaaS and Software Businesses

SBA 7(a) loan statistics for software and SaaS businesses — median approvals, rates, acquisition share, and public vs SMB valuation multiples.

Data as of 2025-09-30 · Based on 2,083 SBA 7(a) loans across 5 NAICS codes

Industry Debt Benchmark

$564,333

Median SBA 7(a) gross approval for SaaS & Software (FY 2025)

FY 2025

Avg Interest Rate (FY 2025)

9.73%

Acquisitions

8%

Loans (Selected FY)

1,055

+3% vs FY 2024

Loan Purpose Mix

How SBA 7(a) loans in your industry break down by business purpose · FY 2025

Change of Ownership
8%(82)
Startup
14%(145)
Existing Business
78%(827)
Other
0%(1)

8% 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: 10.99% (FY 20242025)

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

8%

Median Loan

$1,000,000

Median Rate

9.57%

Median Term

120 mo

2% of acquisition loans involved a franchise brand (e.g. Super 8, Urban Air, One Hour Air).

FY 2025 · 82 Change of Ownership loans · Loan approval ≠ purchase price

Two Markets for SaaS & Software

Public markets reward scale and liquidity. SMB lending reflects the capital available to businesses your size.

Wall Street

Public companies

EV / EBITDA

EBITDA Margin

Main Street

SBA + SMB deals

SMB Multiple

Median SBA Loan

$564,333

1,055 SBA loans (latest FY)

The spread between these markets is the illiquidity and size discount built into SMB economics.

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

Software founders often anchor on public SaaS multiples while buyers underwrite to cash flow and lender limits. SBA 7(a) data reveals how software businesses actually get financed on Main Street: median approval sizes, rate trends, and acquisition versus working-capital mix. We map FOIA disclosures to software NAICS codes and place them beside Damodaran public-company EV/EBITDA for the sector. The gap between Wall Street and Main Street is the story — use these numbers as financing context when raising capital, buying a competitor, or planning an exit.

Frequently asked questions

Yes — especially bootstrapped and lower-middle-market software firms buying competitors, funding acquisitions, or refinancing owner-heavy capital structures. The loan count and median approval on this page reflect matched software NAICS codes in the FOIA dataset.
The Two Markets panel shows listed-company EV/EBITDA alongside the SBA-derived SMB multiple for the sector. Public comps include scaled, liquid firms; Main Street deals typically clear at a fraction of those multiples.
Lenders underwrite to cash flow, collateral, and SBA size standards — not ARR growth rates. Loan size bands in the chart show the distribution of approvals across fiscal years in the dataset.
Check the acquisition percentage insight. Software sees both change-of-ownership and working-capital purposes; the purpose mix chart breaks down the latest FY when data is available.
As market context for financing and valuation conversations — not a substitute for a formal appraisal. For a personalized view with your EBITDA and margin, start a free XIT valuation.