Public loans · Bank financing · Guarantees · Repayable contributions · Growth capital
Business financing, public and bank.
Public and bank financing are not alternatives: they are assembled together. The public guarantee is what gets the bank loan approved; the repayable contribution is what completes the equity the lender requires. This page places each source, what it finances, and how they stack in a single structure.
The sources of financing
How to choose, in four steps
The right financing is not the cheapest one: it is the one whose term matches the term of the need.
- 01 Name the need Buy a machine, hire, absorb a 90-day payment delay, open a foreign market. Each calls for a different instrument.
- 02 Look at public sources first A public loan or repayable contribution often costs less than private financing and requires giving up no equity. It is the first place to look, not the last.
- 03 Prepare the numbers Financial statements for the last two or three years, cash-flow forecasts, order book. No lender, public or private, advances funds without them.
- 04 Stack it properly A project is rarely financed from a single source. Grant plus loan plus own contribution is the common structure — provided each program allows stacking, which its official page states.
What you find here
Filtered on the “loan and financing” type, across all provinces.
BDC, EDC, regional agencies: each has a page listing everything it administers.
No intermediary form, no reseller: the program’s own page.
The directory lists management consultants and financial packaging advisors.
8funder is not a lender, a broker, or a registered financial advisor. The platform does not lend, does not place funds and takes no commission on financing obtained. It lists programs and refers to the body that decides.
See who lends, and to whom
The directory filtered on loans and financing, with the administering body and official link for each program.
Innovation Canada — Business Benefits Finder, under the Open Government Licence – Canada. July 2025 version. 8funder is not affiliated with the Government of Canada.
Classification derived from the organization name and the program text.