The Companies You Wouldn’t Expect to Raise Debt — And How They Did It

When most people think about debt financing for growth companies, they think SaaS. Recurring revenue. Predictable cash flows. Clean ARR metrics.

And that makes sense — recurring revenue is one of the most common assets for a lender to underwrite. But it’s far from the only thing.

At Hum, we work with companies across a wide range of industries and business models. Some of the most interesting deals we’ve facilitated have been for companies that assumed debt wasn’t an option for them — until they learned it was.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of businesses that are successfully raising non-dilutive capital today, and why lenders are eager to work with them.

Hardware and advanced manufacturing. Companies building physical products often sit on valuable inventory, equipment, and receivables — all of which can serve as collateral for asset-based lending. Luminit, a holographic optics company in the defense and aerospace sector, secured a $2,000,000 growth facility through Hum. They weren’t a SaaS company with tidy MRR charts. They were a manufacturer with strong contracts, tangible assets, and a clear growth trajectory — and lenders saw that.

Defense and government contracting. Companies with government contracts have something many lenders love: highly predictable, creditworthy revenue streams. The U.S. government doesn’t default on invoices. That contract backlog can underpin significant borrowing capacity, even for companies that don’t fit the traditional “tech startup” mold.

Healthcare and life sciences. Whether it’s medical devices, diagnostics, or healthcare services, companies in this space often have a mix of recurring revenue, insurance reimbursements, and long-term contracts. Lenders who understand healthcare economics can structure facilities that generalist lenders wouldn’t touch. Hum Financial recently partnered with Optimis Services, a physical therapy and rehabilitation technology provider, to provide a $2,000,000 credit facility that enabled the company to invest in new growth initiatives—while ensuring their repayment structure would support long-term execution.

E-commerce and consumer brands. Companies with strong unit economics, reliable supply chains, and growing revenue can access inventory financing, purchase order financing, and revenue-based lending — even without subscription models that many lenders typically require. For example, the Hum Financial team recently worked with LOOPS, a high-tech skincare brand, to provide them with a $1,750,000 credit facility. With this financing, LOOPS scaled inventory purchases to current and new retailers, including Target, CVS and Ulta, significantly increasing their brand reach to new consumers.

Professional services and staffing. Businesses with reliable client contracts and consistent accounts receivable can tap factoring, ABL, or cash flow-based credit facilities. The revenue may not be “recurring” in the traditional sense, but it’s predictable enough for the right lender. Branding Brand, a mobile app platform helping companies build digital experiences, is a great example of a professional services firm that secured $5,000,000 from Hum’s Intelligent Marketplace to fuel their incremental growth.

The common thread here isn’t a specific business model — it’s that the business has identifiable, underwritable cash flows or assets. If a lender can see how they’ll get repaid, they can structure a deal.

The reason most non-SaaS companies don’t explore debt isn’t that they don’t qualify — it’s that the fintech lending conversation has been so dominated by SaaS platforms that most companies now assume the market isn’t built for them. It is. You just need to find the right lender.

That’s where a marketplace like Hum adds the most value. We don’t specialize in one product or one industry. We match companies to lenders based on what actually makes them creditworthy — whether that’s ARR, contract backlog, receivables, inventory, or something else entirely.

If you’ve been told “debt isn’t for companies like yours,” it might be worth a second look.

→ Ready to explore your options? Speak to Hum.