Years in business is usually the first filter. Most lenders want at least 1 to 2 years of operating history, which makes sense if you think about what they are underwriting. They want bank statements, filed accounts, and a pattern they can analyse, not a promising story. For larger unsecured facilities, some lenders stretch that requirement to 3 years, especially if the business has uneven monthly sales.
A seven-month-old company with one good quarter is not competing in the same market as a trading firm that has filed two years of accounts with ACRA. That does not mean young businesses cannot borrow, only that they should stop shopping mainstream bank products as if the market owes them a fit.
Revenue comes next, and this is where owners often misread “approval in principle” marketing. A common floor among private lenders is around S$500,000 in annual revenue. On paper, that sounds straightforward. In practice, S$500,000 a year is about S$41,700 a month, which is a very different conversation from a business doing S$18,000 some months and S$70,000 in festive periods.
Banks care about stability almost as much as scale. A business with S$800,000 in annual sales but lumpy collections can look weaker than a company turning over S$600,000 with clean, repeatable monthly receipts. That distinction matters because owners keep applying as if turnover alone settles the question.
Profitability matters too, although not always in the neat way people expect. A lender can live with modest profits if cash flow is visible and debt service looks comfortable. What tends to hurt is thin gross margin, volatile costs, or accounts that show revenue but very little left after rent, payroll, CPF employer contributions, and supplier payments.
This is usually where urgency starts making things worse. If the need is payroll next Friday, overdue GST, or a supplier threatening to stop delivery, your options narrow fast. Fintech lenders and some private lenders are built for speed, but speed nearly always comes with a pricing penalty, whether that appears in the rate, the fee, or both. On a S$100,000 facility, a 3% processing fee is S$3,000 before the money even hits your account, roughly a month of back office support for a small firm.
Invoice-backed borrowing is its own lane, and some businesses should go there first instead of forcing a term loan application. If you are waiting 30, 60, or 90 days to get paid by decent counterparties, your invoice book may be more useful than a weak profit line. A logistics company with S$200,000 tied up in receivables from established customers often has a clearer funding story than an F&B outlet asking for unsecured working capital on thin margins.
Government-backed schemes help, but only if you actually qualify. Under the Enterprise Financing Scheme, the business must meet the SME definition, annual group revenue of not more than S$100 million or group employment of not more than 200 employees. The local shareholding rule catches more applicants than people admit. At least 30% equity must be held, directly or indirectly, by Singapore Citizens or PRs on an ultimate individual ownership basis.
For EFS Working Capital Loan, the cap has been S$500,000 per borrower since 1 April 2024, with a group cap of S$5 million. The Government risk-share is 50% for standard SMEs. Young enterprises can get 70% if they were formed within the past 5 years, have at least 1 employee, and are more than 50% individually owned.
The practical move is to match the business to the product before any application goes out. If you are under 12 months old, low revenue, and pre-profit, start by asking who actually lends to that profile. If you have steady sales and clean accounts, banks and EFS-backed options deserve first look. If the real asset is receivables, use that fact.
One rejected application is annoying. Three in a month starts to make you look like a borrower shopping for rescue, which is usually when I start getting suspicious myself.