Is Berkman Financial a lender or a broker?
Executive summary
Berkman Financial presents itself as both a direct “private lender” and an active participant in securing capital, but the documentary trail in its public materials shows stronger evidence that it primarily operates as a broker/originator—matching borrowers with a network of lenders and earning commissions—while also marketing loan products in ways that blur the line between broker and lender [1] [2] [3].
1. The company’s own words: claiming active participation and lending services
Berkman’s website uses language that mixes brokerage and lending: it asserts that “while other companies offer small business loans by simply brokering them, Berkman Financial actively participates in securing the funding for your business,” and it advertises concrete products such as business lines of credit and merchant cash advances, implying it delivers financing solutions rather than only referrals [2] [4] [5].
2. Clear brokerage signals: partners, commissions, and access to many lenders
The company’s Partners page explicitly markets referral economics and marketplace access—promising “Access to 50+ Trusted Lenders,” a “Real-Time Partner Portal,” and an “Earn 2% Commission on Funded Deals” program—which are textbook features of a broker or lead-originator rather than a balance-sheet bank that funds loans directly [3].
3. Third-party descriptions and tech case studies describe brokerage/origination
External write-ups and case studies frame Berkman as an originator or broker in the alternative lending space: a Cloudsquare case study describes Berkman’s use of Salesforce to “originate working capital loans faster” and calls it an “alternative business lending broker,” language that places the company in the business of matching borrowers to funders and shuttling deals through a pipeline rather than being the principal source of funds [6].
4. Conflicting messaging: testimonials calling it a private lender
Marketing pages and customer testimonials sometimes refer to Berkman as a “private lender,” a phrase that sells speed and certainty compared with banks and supports the consumer-facing narrative that funds come directly from Berkman—this framing appears on promotional landing pages and testimonials that praise fast capital from a “private lender” [1].
5. Public profiles and directories: “offers small business loans” but not a smoking gun
Business directories and consumer platforms list Berkman as offering small business loans—examples include Yelp and the Better Business Bureau entries that identify Berkman Funding, LLC as offering small business loans—which corroborates that customers can obtain financing through the company, but such listings do not reveal whether the company underwrites from its own balance sheet or places deals with third-party funders [7] [8].
6. How to reconcile the evidence: a pragmatic reading
Taken together, the strongest documented facts point to Berkman Financial functioning primarily as a broker/originator and facilitator: the partner portal and commission program [3], outside descriptions of it as a “lending broker” or originator [6], and its blog content explaining merchant cash advances and brokering [5] all indicate that Berkman’s core business model is arranging funding with multiple lenders. At the same time, its own marketing leans into the “private lender” framing and lists loan products on its site [1] [4], which creates deliberate ambiguity that can attract borrowers seeking direct funding; public directory entries saying it “offers small business loans” confirm customer-facing loan availability without revealing funding source [8] [7]. There is no definitive public evidence in the provided sources—such as regulatory filings, audited balance sheets, or explicit statements of capital sources—that proves Berkman uses its own capital as a principal lender, so the most supportable claim from the available reporting is that Berkman operates as a broker/originator while marketing itself in lender-like terms.
7. Motives and consumer implications: why the distinction matters
That ambiguity benefits Berkman commercially—“private lender” language shortens sales friction [1] while broker infrastructure and commissions create scalable revenue from arranging many deals [3]—but it matters to borrowers because broker-origination often means variable pricing, third-party underwriting, and the potential for different disclosures or responsibilities than a bank or captive lender; none of the provided sources contain regulatory or funding-structure disclosures that resolve those practical differences definitively [3] [2].