- Unsecured funding approves on your revenue and bank deposits rather than a pledged asset, making it faster to close and accessible to businesses without hard assets.
- No-collateral options include working capital, lines of credit, merchant cash advances, and revenue-based financing.
- "Unsecured" is not the same as "no personal guarantee" — almost every unsecured product still requires a personal guarantee.
- Because the lender has no asset to fall back on, unsecured funding usually carries higher rates and shorter terms, and amounts tend to be smaller than secured loans.
Funding without pledging your assets
Secured loans require you to back the money with a specific asset — real estate, equipment, or receivables — that the lender can claim if you default. Unsecured funding skips that. Instead of asset value, underwriters look at how your business performs: revenue, deposit consistency, and credit. That makes unsecured products faster to close and accessible to service businesses and others that simply don’t have hard assets to pledge.
No-collateral options worth knowing
- Working capital — short-term funding underwritten on recent bank statements, with no specific asset pledged.
- Line of credit — a revolving limit you draw from as needed; you only pay for what you use, and nothing is collateralized.
- Merchant cash advance — funding based on your sales and repaid as a share of daily or weekly revenue. The most accessible unsecured option.
- Revenue-based financing — repayment scales with revenue, which smooths out slower months.
Understand the personal guarantee
The most important fine print in unsecured funding is the personal guarantee. “No collateral” does not mean “no risk to you” — almost every unsecured product asks you to personally guarantee repayment. That’s the trade for skipping the asset pledge.
An honest note on cost
Because the lender has no asset to fall back on, unsecured funding usually carries higher rates and shorter terms than secured loans. Hoss Capital always checks whether a lower-cost secured option fits first, and only steers you toward unsecured funding when speed or a lack of pledgeable assets makes it the right call.