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Related Headlines
| 12/12/2025 | Forward Financing: $170M ABS |
| 07/28/2025 | Cloudsquare adds Forward Financing |
| 01/02/2025 | New CEO at Forward Financing |
| 10/01/2024 | Forward Financing expands credit facility |
| 02/08/2024 | Forward Financing appoints new CTO |
Stories
Cloudsquare lending platform now integrated with Forward Financing
July 28, 2025Los Angeles, CA – July 28, 2025 – Cloudsquare, the leading provider of Salesforce-powered merchant cash advance (MCA) solutions, has announced the addition of Forward Financing to its expanding library of lender connections, strengthening its position as the most advanced lending platform on the market.
This new lender API module enables brokers to submit applications, receive offers, and track deal statuses all from within the Cloudsquare Broker platform, eliminating friction and accelerating decision-making in one of the most competitive areas of alternative finance.
Key Features of the Forward Financing Module:
· Submission Status Tracking: Stay updated in real time with polling-based updates, no more inbox-hunting or status guessing.
· Offer Generation: Offers are delivered directly into Cloudsquare, streamlining your workflow.
· Declined Details: Receive clear reasons for declines, allowing teams to adjust and resubmit quickly.
· Document Upload: Upload and manage application files using a dedicated endpoint.
· Industry Picklists: Keep submissions clean and categorized with discrete industry values.
This enhancement is part of Cloudsquare’s ongoing mission to offer the most powerful and scalable lending platform in the industry, giving brokers access to more funders, faster automation, and an unmatched ability to scale.
Explore more about this connection here
About Cloudsquare
Cloudsquare is the most powerful end-to-end lending platform built natively on Salesforce. Designed to automate and streamline every stage of the lending lifecycle—from lead to funding to servicing—our platform helps financial organizations move faster, scale smarter, and close more deals with confidence. Trusted by top lenders and rated #1 on the Salesforce AppExchange, Cloudsquare combines AI-powered automation with unmatched configurability to transform how lending teams operate.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Cloudsquare Marketing Email: marketing@cloudsquare.io
Forward Financing Gets $250M to Grow
June 4, 2021
Forward Financing announced a $250 million credit facility from one of their current capital providers.
“This is a big win for our business and a testament to our strong financial performance throughout this difficult past year,” said Eugene Wong, Vice President of Strategy and Finance. “The increased facility gives us the flexible capital we need to grow and expand so that we can support the small business economy as it recovers on the other side of the COVID pandemic.”
Forward said it reported growing 60% in the past six months and expected to double the employee headcount in the coming year. The numbers back this up: the firm originated a total of $165,826,203 across 6,142 advances in 2020, a representative said. Forward reached a total of $1B in funding as of March 2021 since the firm was founded in 2012.
Forward Financing Wins Customer Service Award, Originates $165M in 2020
May 10, 2021Forward Financing won a Silver Stevie Award for the Best Customer Service Department of the Annual American Business Awards, for their work helping clients during the pandemic year. The firm originated a total of $165,826,203 across 6,142 advances in 2020, a representative said.
“We are truly honored to receive recognition for the fantastic job our Account Servicing team does every day to help our small business customers,” Justin Bakes, co-founder and CEO, said. “Particularly in 2020, that help was needed more than ever before to help small business owners get through the most difficult months of the pandemic.”
The firm said that in 2020, thousands of customers reached out to the Account Servicing Department (ASD) to request payment relief from the pandemic shutdown. The company trained 18 team members from different departments to join ASD, nearly tripling the size of the team, the firm said.
Forward competed with more than 3,800 nominations submitted this year for organizations across the US. Since 2012, Forward Financing has provided more than $1 billion in funding to more than 26,000 small businesses.
Forward Financing Reaches $1 Billion in Funding to Underserved Small Business
March 1, 2021Boston-based Fintech Company Expands Main Street’s Access to Capital During Pandemic, Achieves Major Growth Milestone
Boston, Mass., March 1, 2021 – Forward Financing, a financial technology company that provides flexible revenue-based financing to small businesses, today announced that they have provided $1 billion in funding since their inception in 2012. The majority of this funding has gone to underserved small businesses nationwide; those that are unable to obtain financing through traditional sources like banks or the Small Business Administration.
“Nine years ago, we started this company upon the realization that so many small businesses lacked access to working capital,” said Forward Financing co-founder and CEO Justin Bakes. “As we look ahead to our next $1 billion milestone, we will continue to focus on providing best-in-class customer service and on helping our small business customers reach their full potential, no matter what challenges may arise.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the U.S. economy and many small businesses have needed additional financial resources to get by. Despite over $600 billion in loans provided through the Payroll Protection Program, this alone has been insufficient in fulfilling the need for capital. As a result, many small business owners have turned to funders like Forward Financing for support.
Forward Financing is uniquely suited to help small businesses during this economic downturn because it offers financing that is based on revenue, and is not a loan. Therefore, small business customers who may be experiencing a revenue slowdown can reduce their payments proportionately.
“Forward Financing has helped me grow my business and take advantage of opportunities,” a retail business owner recently said. “Their service has been excellent and when COVID hit, they easily and efficiently helped me adjust my payment schedule so I remained current and my business was not interrupted. I will use them again and again in the future!”
Over the past six months, Forward Financing has grown daily funding volume at an average rate of 17% per month as they continue to help small businesses navigate the pandemic economy. In order to help meet rapidly growing demand, they are currently expanding headcount in Boston by 20%.
About Forward Financing
Forward Financing is a Boston-based financial technology company that provides fast, flexible working capital to small businesses nationwide. Their dedicated account representatives and advanced proprietary technology help customers spend less time finding capital and more time growing their business. With a simple, secure online application, business owners can trust that Forward Financing works to get them approvals within minutes, funding within hours, and personalized support when they need it most.
Since 2012, Forward Financing has expanded Main Street’s access to capital by providing over $1 billion in funding to nearly 30,000 small businesses. The company is rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and ‘Excellent / 4.9 stars’ on Trustpilot.com. Forward Financing was named a Best Place To Work by both
the Boston Business Journal and Built In Boston, and has been named by both Inc. Magazine and the Boston Business Journal as one of Massachusetts’ fastest-growing companies each year since 2017. Forward Financing is committed to helping more small business owners succeed and achieve their full potential. To learn more, visit www.forwardfinancing.com.
Media Contact
Lauren Groccia
lmelaugh@forwardfinancing.com
508-314-3574
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Connecticut Commercial Financing Bill Moving Forward
April 29, 2026Connecticut’s commercial financing bill is moving its way through the state legislature. See it here.
Like a few other states it applies to merchant cash advances and it includes an APR requirement. While an earlier version of the bill exempted all sales-based financing transactions above $250,000 from the rules, it removed the threshold and made all transactions of all sizes subject to them. Both brokers and funders would be required to register with the Banking Department in order to offer commercial financing to Connecticut-based merchants.
Maryland’s Commercial Financing Disclosure Bill Failed to Move Forward
April 12, 2022
Maryland’s commercial financing bill, propelled by bi-partisan support, failed to overcome the final hurdle before the State’s 2022 legislative session adjourned sine die yesterday. SB 825 passed the Senate in March and became the subject of much debate in the House of Delegates on the 30th. Testimony from 17 people was considered, much of it oral.
The bill’s lofty idyllic intent is perhaps what contributed to its demise. Despite legislative enthusiasm for applying consumer style protections to commercial finance transactions, regulators tasked with its actual implementation were amongst its harshest critics.
The Consumer Protection Division of the State’s Attorney General’s Office said “the bill makes a violation an unfair, abusive or deceptive practice in violation of the Consumer Protection Act. With limited exceptions, violations of the Consumer Protection Act are limited to consumer transactions, i.e., transactions that are primarily for personal, family or household use, and expanding the CPA to cover business-to business transactions would open a door that could lead to a significant increase in the number of complaints received by the Division, requiring the Division to add corresponding resources.” The Division gave an official thumbs down on the bill.
Maryland’s Department of Labor stated that the requirements of the bill would make it “difficult to operationalize from a monitoring, investigatory and enforcement perspective” and that there would be too much uncertainty given that New York, a state that passed a similar law, has been unable to effectively implement their own version. “Maryland small businesses, lenders and borrowers alike, may be negatively impacted if the rollout of the system in New York is significantly delayed or New York enacts systems or procedures not appropriate to or anticipated by Maryland businesses,” it concluded.
Other states, like California, have encountered similar problems with commercial financing disclosure legislation. The bill it passed in 2018 still has not been implemented over lingering disputes over how to do the math it mandates.
Proponents and critics alike picked away at each other’s arguments in Maryland, but when the session ended late late Monday evening to a hail of confetti and balloons, SB 825 had not been called. This was the third year in a row that a commercial financing bill has failed. Another version will likely be introduced when the legislature eventually returns.
‘Like Family’: How Critical Financing Became One of the Fastest Growing ISOs
October 17, 2025When Farmingdale, Long Island-based Critical Financing (CFI) showed up as the 2,671st fastest growing company on the Inc. 5000 list this year, it was a testament to the company’s many years of hard work. Founded in 2017 by its CEO Brandon Garcia, CFI connects small businesses with a variety of unsecured working capital products.
“[Getting that recognition] was great,” said Garcia. “And I think it’s also a testament to the group that we have. It excites the people that work here too. This is a very stressful job, it’s not easy.”
In CFI’s day-to-day, the sales team finds itself competing against multiple companies on almost every deal that comes across their desks. Small businesses regularly put the pressure on them to get the best rate, the fastest funding, or a combination of both. They say this only increases their drive.
“It has definitely helped us in a way,” Garcia said of it. “I mean who doesn’t want a deal that doesn’t have competition, you can kind of take your time with it, right? But I think when there’s urgency, our guys perform better.”
In the very beginning it was just Garcia himself who had worked in the industry since 2012. He was soon after joined by a former colleague, Robert Menzel, and the two set off to really build up a company. That’s easier said than done, especially in a business where trust is paramount. So they looked within their own circle of friends and family to create a solid foundation.
“I felt it was best that we take care of our own,” Garcia said. “Let’s take care of people that we know that are looking for a new opportunity, and we train them the way that we want them to be trained. We want to give that experience and push it over to them.”
Among those they’ve brought on board to their current headcount of sixteen has been Garcia’s own mother, who works as the company’s head processor. And while they are still actively looking to bring on more people, Garcia said that the number of employees isn’t the ultimate metric of success, but rather the abilities of the ones you do have and the relationships they have with everyone else is the key. On this point, CFI is on pace to surpass $100 million in funding this year. It’s because of their continuous progress and results that they finally got the confidence to apply into the Inc. 5000 and were successful in making it.
“To be able to put that Inc. 5000 sticker in your signature, on the website, it just has a different swag to it,” said Garcia’s partner Menzel, “where it just carries a lot of weight, and even the merchants see that.”
When asked if the end goal was to become a lender themselves, both Menzel and Garcia say they’re happy with what they already do now, which is connect the merchants to the most appropriate source.
“While many competitors chase the close, we lead with transparency and real strategy,” Garcia said. “We act as consultants first. Even if a client doesn’t move forward with us, we want them to walk away smarter and more prepared than when they came in.”
“When you are a lender, you don’t really have that close relationship with other lenders because you’re your own lender,” Menzel said. “You’re not talking to them about deals, how to get deals done, ‘what are they doing? What did they change this month compared to what they’ve been doing, what’s working, what’s not.’ I think having those relationships with the lenders and the lenders’ reps, it’s huge and it makes the job fun, because they’re really all great people that we deal with.”
That closeness is what it’s all about for them.
“We are a group of people who genuinely care about each other,” Garcia said. “We’ve celebrated marriages and welcomed new babies. We hang out on weekends, show up for one another, and create a work environment that doesn’t feel transactional.”
The outcome of that are months where the company is exceeding $10 million a month in funding, and they’re now even more fired up after the Inc. 5000 placement.
“You don’t need this massive shop to be successful in this industry,” Garcia reiterated. “It’s really that simple. You just need the right people. You need to be loyal and just really be truthful with everyone. And good things happen. That’s a big thing for us.”
Dodd-Frank 1071: Regulatory Uncertainty in Small Business Financing
May 28, 2025Jeffrey S. Paige is the Chief Legal Officer of CFG Merchant Solutions. Visit: https://cfgmerchantsolutions.com
A Changing Regulatory Landscape for Commercial Finance in New York & Beyond
When President Trump returned to office on January 20, 2025, he signed several executive orders with significant implications, particularly for New York’s commercial finance sector and the revenue-based financing industry. One such order was a regulatory freeze that could impact rules issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), specifically those concerning small business financing data collection under Dodd-Frank Section 1071. The rationale behind this freeze is that the CFPB, an agency not directly controlled by Congress, exceeded its intended regulatory scope.
Trump’s order not only halts the issuance of new rules but also mandates the withdrawal of any rules previously sent to the Office of the Federal Register. More critically, it directs agency heads to “consider postponing” any rules that have been published but have not yet taken effect, creating a 60-day review period for reassessment of their legal and policy implications.
“Should actions be identified that were undertaken before noon on January 20, 2025, that frustrate the purpose underlying this memorandum, I may modify or extend this memorandum to require that department and agency heads consider taking steps to address those actions,” the order concludes. This places Section 1071 in limbo, leaving financial institutions uncertain about compliance obligations moving forward.
However, New York funders may still need to prepare. Under 12 U.S.C. § 5552 of the Dodd-Frank Act, individual states (including their respective financial regulators and attorneys general) have the authority to enforce federal consumer financial law, specifically, the Consumer Financial Protection Act and 18 enumerated consumer laws such as TILA, EFTA, FDCPA, GLBA, and regulations issued by the CFPB. Simply put, New York has the ability to enforce these laws and regulations, including Section 1071, by bringing suit in federal or state courts or other appropriate proceedings against any “covered person or service provider” as defined and not excluded by the Dodd-Frank Act’s terms. It is therefore prudent for non-exempt lenders and funders to take a proactive approach.
What Is Dodd-Frank 1071?
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, enacted in 2010, sought to address vulnerabilities in the financial system exposed during the 2008 financial crisis. On March 30, 2023, Section 1071 amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), empowering the CFPB to collect and report key data from financial institutions on small business financing. The compliance deadline varies based on the size of the institution, with the earliest deadline set for July 18, 2025, affecting Tier 1 providers, defined as high-volume financial institutions.
The goal of Section 1071 is to identify and address disparities in small business financing by analyzing key metrics such as:
- Demographics of business owners (race, gender, ethnicity).
- Financing terms, rates, and credit outcomes.
- Geographic data, including trends in underserved regions.
By requiring funders to disclose this information, the regulation seeks to foster accountability and ensure that small businesses—especially those owned by minorities and women—have equitable access to credit and capital.
CFPB & Section 1071 Timeline
2010: Dodd-Frank Act Enacted
- Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is established.
2011: CFPB Established
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is created as an independent agency overseeing consumer financial protection laws, including small business lending regulations under Section 1071.
2017: CFPB Faces Legal Challenges
- Industry groups challenge the CFPB’s authority and structure, arguing that it lacks proper congressional oversight.
- Under the Trump administration, regulatory focus shifts toward deregulation, and CFPB rulemaking efforts on Section 1071 slowed down.
2020: U.S. Supreme Court Decision – Seila Law v. CFPB
- The Supreme Court rules that the president can remove the CFPB director at will, weakening its independence but allowing it to continue functioning.
2021: Biden Administration Revives Section 1071 Rulemaking
- The CFPB under Director Rohit Chopra prioritizes implementing Section 1071, aiming to enhance transparency in small business lending.
2022-2023: CFPB Proposes & Finalizes Section 1071 Rule
- The proposed rule is released in 2022, requiring lenders to collect and report loan application data, including business owner demographics.
- In March 2023, the final rule is issued, with compliance deadlines set for 2024 and 2025 based on lender size.
2023-2024: Legal Pushback & Court Challenges
- Industry groups file lawsuits, arguing that Section 1071 creates excessive regulatory burdens and violates constitutional limits on CFPB authority
- In October 2023, a Texas court stays the rule for certain plaintiffs, pausing enforcement for some lenders.
- In 2024, additional lawsuits escalate concerns over the rule’s implementation.
January 20, 2025: Trump Returns to Office & Freezes Regulations
- On his first day back in office, President Trump issues an executive order freezing pending regulations, including Section 1071.
- The order:
- Blocks new CFPB rulemaking,
- Withdraws rules not yet finalized,
- Delays implementation of already published rules for a 60-day review period.
- President Trump’s justification: The CFPB is an unelected agency that overstepped its authority, and its rules should be reassessed.
2025: Uncertainty & State-Level Action
- The CFPB’s authority remains in question, leaving financial institutions uncertain about compliance requirements.
- New York may independently implement similar reporting requirements, as it has done with previous commercial financing regulations.
- Many New York funders continue preparing for potential state-level enforcement despite the federal freeze.
How Alternative Financing Providers Can Adapt
Funders in the alternative financing space should remain agile and prepare for multiple scenarios. Even if Section 1071 is rolled back, transparency and fair funding practices remain critical for fostering trust and maintaining credibility in the market.
Steps funders can take include:
- Investing in technology to automate compliance processes, ensuring readiness for future regulations.
- Engaging with industry stakeholders to advocate for practical regulatory approaches that balance fairness and business efficiency.
- Maintaining transparency in financing practices to build stronger relationships with merchants and partners.
Looking Ahead
As the financial industry navigates the potential rollback of Dodd-Frank 1071 (Republican Congressman Roger Williams of Texas has introduced H.R. 976 seeking to do just that), alternative financing companies should focus on long-term strategies that prioritize both compliance and innovation. This is especially true in New York, where the legislature is currently considering a bill called the Fair Business Practices Act, modeled after Title X of Dodd-Frank, that would among other things expand the New York Attorney General’s enforcement powers and enhance penalties in this industry sector for UDAP violations. This further signals that New York as well as other states is seeking to fill any void left by the weakening of the CFPB. Whether the regulation remains in effect or is dismantled, financial institutions should stay proactive in adapting to changes while ensuring fair access to capital for small businesses.
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