CLEAR DATA REPORT · PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2026 · COVERS JANUARY–DECEMBER 2025
A full-year look at the small business funding Clear arranged in 2025: how much businesses received, which industries borrowed and what owners used the money for. Part of our Small Business Funding Report.
All figures cover funded deals from January 1 to December 31, 2025, compared with full-year 2024.
The median 2025 deal was $124,000. The middle half of deals fell between $55,000 and $250,000, compared with $40,000 to $150,000 in 2024.
Funded businesses were also more established: the median business had been operating for about 15 years, up from about 12 years in 2024.
Professional and business services led with 22% of deals, followed by construction and trades (18%), healthcare and dental (12%), manufacturing and wholesale (10%) and retail (9%).
Restaurants and food service rose to 8% of deals from 4% in 2024. See our guide to restaurant business loans.
Working capital was the most common use at 40% of stated uses, followed by debt consolidation or refinancing (18%), expansion or a new location (12%) and equipment (11%).
49% of businesses first funded in 2025 have already come back for additional funding, in line with the long-run average of 51%. The leading states in 2025 were California, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Short term loan products make up about 48% of Clear’s funded deals, lines of credit about 22%, long term loan products 19% and specialty finance 11%. The mix is broadly similar from year to year.
Learn more about short term loans, merchant cash advances, lines of credit and term loans.
| Year | Median deal | Middle 50% of deals | Under $50K | $250K+ | New clients who came back | Largest industry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015–17 | $71K | $36K–$106K | 24% | 7% | — | — |
| 2018 | $61K | $30K–$126K | 42% | 5% | 61% | Healthcare & dental |
| 2019 | $60K | $34K–$100K | 41% | 7% | 42% | Healthcare & dental |
| 2020 | $70K | $37K–$119K | 32% | 8% | 34% | Healthcare & dental |
| 2021 | $72K | $35K–$108K | 36% | 10% | 68% | Technology & telecom / Healthcare & dental |
| 2022 | $60K | $34K–$150K | 36% | 11% | 52% | Healthcare & dental |
| 2023 | $100K | $40K–$200K | 28% | 20% | 45% | Construction & trades |
| 2024 | $70K | $40K–$150K | 33% | 9% | 54% | Professional & business services |
| 2025 | $124K | $55K–$250K | 18% | 26% | 49% | Professional & business services |
One of my major vendors was slow to pay and I was having a hard time making payroll. Clear was able to quickly get me approved for a merchant cash advance. The terms were much better than I found elsewhere and I had funds in my account the very next day. Thank you Clear!
Every figure comes from small business financing deals that Clear arranged through its network of 100+ lenders, taken from our own deal records. It is not a survey and it does not include applications that were not funded.
In October 2026. It covers funded deals from January 1 to December 31, 2025, using the same definitions as every other year in the series.
A handful of very large deals can pull an average far away from what a typical business receives. The median is the deal in the middle: half of deals were larger and half were smaller, so it better reflects a normal funding experience.
Every figure we publish is based on at least 30 funded deals or businesses. Where a group is smaller than that, such as single industries within a single year, we combine years or leave it out rather than publish an unreliable number.
Industries and uses of funds are recorded in free text, so we group them into consistent categories using the same rules for every year. Percentages are shares of deals where that field was recorded. The product mix is an approximate breakdown of all funded deals by product type, which is broadly similar from year to year.
It is the share of businesses that received additional funding through Clear after their first deal, such as a renewal, an additional advance or a different product. For a given year, it covers businesses first funded that year, with repeat funding counted through October 2026. Businesses funded more recently have had less time to come back.
Yes. The data is free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Please cite it as the Clear Small Business Funding Report and link to the page you used. Journalists and researchers can reach us through our contact page.
