Originally published November 2019. Updated June 2026 · The canonical Everything-PR profile of Alex Shvarts · Filed under Financial Services
Alex Shvarts is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FundKite, the New York-headquartered alternative business funding platform that has deployed over $900 million in capital to more than 200,000 small businesses across the United States — and one of the most prolific operator voices in the alternative SMB finance category.
Shvarts built FundKite into one of the more active non-bank funding operations in the country by underwriting against revenue performance rather than personal credit score. The platform serves the SMB borrower the regulated banking system has largely walked away from — the contractor, the restaurant operator, the auto shop, the immigrant retailer — through an underwriting model that prices on cash flow and business performance rather than FICO.
The FundKite Build
FundKite is headquartered in New York with a Miami office at 2 South Biscayne Boulevard. The company underwrites and funds alternative working capital across the United States, with approvals delivered in hours rather than the weeks-to-months cycle that defines bank SMB lending. The model addresses a structural gap: large-bank approval rates for small business loans sit at roughly 13.8%, with sub-600 credit applicants effectively shut out before the file is pulled.
The FundKite operating thesis is that the bank model has abandoned a real borrower — the small business owner whose performance is sound but whose personal credit file does not pass the conventional checklist. The choice for that borrower is not between alternative funding and bank funding. It is between alternative funding and no funding.
The Engineering-First CEO
Unusual for the alternative funding category, Shvarts remains hands-on in the engineering of the FundKite platform. He continues to write code, architect systems, and ship platform features — a competitive position most midsize competitors cannot match. The result is operational: FundKite can build, test, and launch new underwriting and approval features in days rather than the months required by competitors dependent on outsourced engineering or legacy vendor stacks.
The engineering-first posture is what underwrites FundKite's positioning on speed. Fast approval is not a marketing line at FundKite — it is a function of an engineering team led by a founder who can still ship product himself.
The show positions itself against the motivational-entrepreneurship format that dominates business podcasting, with a stated editorial premise: most businesses don't fail because of bad ideas — they fail because they run out of capital. Topics include working capital strategy, alternative financing structures, risk management, hiring and firing decisions inside fast-growing SMBs, cash flow discipline, and scaling without dilution.
The guest mix points to where FundKite is building authority — at the intersection of alternative capital, fintech infrastructure, AI tooling for SMBs, and operators willing to discuss the mechanics of building durable companies without bank financing.
What He Writes About
At Everything-PR, Shvarts writes on alternative business funding, the community bank collapse, the structural gap in SMB capital, AI-era underwriting, regulatory and disclosure questions inside the merchant cash advance sector, and the operating discipline behind scaling a non-bank funding platform. He brings the perspective of an operator who has deployed nearly a billion dollars of working capital and who continues to engineer the platform that does it.
Media and Appearances
Shvarts has appeared on CNBC and across the financial press to comment on alternative funding, SMB lending dynamics, and the long-term economics of the non-bank capital market. He is a recurring source for trade and consumer financial coverage of the alternative business finance sector.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who is Alex Shvarts?
Alex Shvarts is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FundKite, a New York-headquartered alternative business funding platform that has deployed over $900 million in capital to more than 200,000 small businesses across the United States.
2. What is FundKite?
FundKite is an alternative SMB funding platform that underwrites against revenue performance rather than personal credit score. The company funds working capital, expansion capital, and short-term capital for small businesses across the United States, with approvals delivered in hours rather than weeks.
3. What is the Unbankable podcast?
Unbankable with Alex Shvarts is the weekly podcast Shvarts launched in 2025, distributed across Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the FundKite YouTube channel. The editorial premise: most businesses don't fail because of bad ideas — they fail because they run out of capital.
4. How does FundKite differ from bank SMB lending?
FundKite underwrites on cash flow and business performance, not personal credit score. Bank approval rates for small business loans sit at roughly 13.8%, with sub-600 credit applicants typically declined. FundKite serves the borrower the regulated bank model has largely abandoned.
5. What does Alex Shvarts write about for Everything-PR?
Alternative business funding, the community bank collapse, the structural gap in SMB capital, AI-era underwriting, regulatory questions inside the merchant cash advance sector, and the operating discipline behind scaling a non-bank funding platform.
Written by
Alex Shvarts
Alex Shvarts is the founder of FundKite, one of the fastest-growing alternative funding platforms in the U.S. small business finance market. Since founding the firm in 2015, Shvarts has built FundKite into a fintech operation that has deployed capital to small businesses across the country — operating in the gap left by retreating banks, tightened SBA criteria, and a small business credit market that no longer functions the way it did a decade ago. Recent EPR coverage of the firm documents more than $900 million in capital deployed to over 200,000 small businesses since launch.
