Max Funding: small, fast business loans for new and credit-impaired owners

Most online lenders want to see a clean credit file and a year or two of steady deposits before they’ll talk. Max Funding goes looking for the businesses that don’t have those things. Its website opens with “Bad credit? OK! New business? OK!”, and much of its product range is built around small, quick amounts for owners who have already heard no somewhere else.

That makes it worth understanding properly, including where to be careful. Everything below is from Max Funding’s own website as at October 2026.

What Max Funding lists

Max Funding presents a long menu, but it boils down to three kinds of funding:

Small, short loans (often with bad credit considered)

• Fast business loans, listed at $3,000 to $50,000 over one month to two years
• Short-term business loans, from $3,000 over one month to a year
• Startup, bad credit and franchise loans, from $3,000 or $10,000 with terms up to three years including extension options
• Low doc loans from $10,000, needing limited income documents

Unsecured business loans

• Listed at $5,000 to $500,000, with terms ranging from three months to five years in its comparison table
• A line of credit is mentioned as available alongside the unsecured loan

Property-secured funding

• Caveat loans, with a fact sheet range of $5,000 to $50,000 over one month to two years, secured on equity in homes, commercial or industrial premises, farms or land
• An “equity” business loan from $10,000

Max Funding says there are no hidden fees and no penalty for paying out early, and that interest may be tax deductible where the loan is used solely for business. As always, judge the total cost in dollars rather than any headline figure. Our business loan repayment calculator helps you see what a short term does to each repayment.

Read the figures as a guide, not a promise

Here’s the specific thing to know. Max Funding’s own pages don’t always agree with each other. The unsecured page, for example, shows $5,000 to $500,000 in its fact sheet but $3,000 to $30,000 in its body text and FAQs, and terms of “1 month to 12 months” in one place and up to five years in another. The caveat page gives several different maximum amounts, pre-approval times and loan-to-value figures.

None of that is unusual for a busy promotional website, and it doesn’t tell you the offer will be unfair. It does mean you shouldn’t plan around a number you read online. Wait for the written offer, and check the amount, term, every fee and the security against what you discussed.

A related question worth asking up front: who is the actual credit provider? Max Funding’s about page calls it a “small business finance facilitator”, while its FAQs speak of its obligations “as a responsible lender”. The name on the contract is the business you’ll be dealing with until the final repayment.

Who qualifies

Max Funding’s published criteria are deliberately broad:

• Over 18, with an ABN (or planning to open a business with one), borrowing mainly for business purposes.
• Startups generally need to own a motor vehicle and/or real estate, and can’t be in a debt agreement or bankruptcy.
• Established businesses on the unsecured loan: trading six months or more, with stable monthly turnover of $7,500 or more. Assets may not be required.
• Caveat loans need property with usable equity in Australia; overseas property isn’t accepted.

Joint applicants are encouraged, and Max Funding says a co-applicant can improve both the chance of approval and the amount.

If you want to compare lenders with this kind of appetite, our guide to bad credit business loans explains what these lenders actually weigh up.

Weighing Max Funding against a lender that could offer more time or a bigger limit? Run it past our team first; asking us doesn’t involve a credit check.

How fast it moves

Speed is a big part of the pitch:

1. Pre-approval through an online form Max Funding says takes about three minutes, with no credit check.
2. A response within an hour during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm AEST).
3. Documents: ID and basic business and asset details to start, often with bank statements via read-only access or upload. Caveat loans add a driver’s licence and a council rates notice.
4. Funding within 24 hours of a signed contract and settlement conditions being met, or the same day if the contract is back before 3pm AEST.

When a caveat loan is on the table

Max Funding’s caveat product places a caveat on your property’s title as security. It’s a quick, short-term tool, and it can work well for an urgent gap when there’s a clear way to repay. Our pages on caveat loans and the caveat itself explain how lodgement works and what it means for the property. Where your figure goes beyond Max Funding’s fact sheet range, a specialist private lender such as HomeSec Business Finance lends against property for bigger sums.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Who is the lender named on my contract?
• Counting every fee, how much will I have paid back by the end, in dollars?
• How often are repayments taken, and what does each one come to?
• If I use the extension option, what does that add to the cost?
• What security or guarantees are included, and will anything be registered on the PPSR or my property title?

Good alternatives to compare

• For established businesses with clean statements: Bizcap, Capify and Lumi all offer unsecured funding assessed largely on bank data.
• If you need more time to repay: a longer business term loan usually means smaller, steadier repayments.
• Got property and need a bigger sum: a second mortgage business loan can go well beyond small caveat limits.
• Already turned down by your bank: read declined by the bank for a calm, step-by-step plan.

And if your credit is sound and your bank will lend, take that offer seriously: it will usually be cheaper. Lenders like Max Funding fill the gap when the bank won’t.

Been knocked back before? Start with a conversation

If you’re looking at Max Funding, chances are your file has a wrinkle: a short history, a default, a patchy few months. Those things narrow your options, but they rarely close them, and the right lender can depend on details no online form picks up.

We’d like to hear them. Our form is about a minute’s work, and sending it leaves no mark on your credit history. Your details aren’t passed from lender to lender; a member of our team reads your situation and calls you back personally. Tell us candidly about any credit hiccups and your real figures, and we can steer you to a realistic option the first time.

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