The biggest local winners in SBA-backed financing for 2025 are now on the board, with a fresh ranking of Twin Cities companies showing who locked down the most federal-guaranteed cash last year. Covering the 24-county Twin Cities metro, the list tracks which firms took in the largest SBA-backed loans and how local banks helped push that capital into area businesses. For owners and developers, the numbers double as a cheat sheet for who had the financing to expand, buy property or refinance in 2025.
Data reporter Ethan Nelson at the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal compiled a ranking of the top 20 Twin Cities companies by the dollar value of SBA loan approvals between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025. The list counts both the total funds originated by participating lenders and the portion guaranteed by the SBA, and it only includes the 24-county metro area, from Hennepin and Ramsey over to Pierce and St. Croix. The idea is straightforward, showing which firms tapped federally backed financing for growth, real estate buys and business acquisitions last year.
Zooming out to the state level, Minnesota businesses received roughly $620.2 million in SBA 7(a) approvals across about 1,370 loans in 2025, according to an analysis of official SBA data by GoSBA Loans. That combination of loan volume and total dollars reflects both high-count national platforms that crank through many smaller deals and community banks that focus on fewer, larger approvals. A sizable share of that activity ran through lenders and borrowers in the Twin Cities metro, as the Business Journal ranking suggests.
Who’s Lending Locally
Drilling into lender data, national players such as U.S. Bank and Huntington show up among the busiest by number of loans, while Minnesota-based banks like Platinum Bank, Falcon National and Frandsen Bank & Trust posted some of the largest average approvals, according to an SBA-data breakdown by SBABroker.ai. The strong showing by community lenders tracks with the kinds of owner-occupied real estate deals and mid-market business transactions that often lean on SBA guarantees and longer repayment periods. Those lending habits help explain why locally headquartered firms appear again and again in the Twin Cities top 20.
What It Means For Local Businesses
The SBA Office of Advocacy reports that Minnesota had about 560,428 small businesses and heavy employment concentrations in professional services, transportation and construction, sectors that frequently rely on 7(a) and 504 financing. As outlined by the SBA Office of Advocacy, those industry patterns help account for the wide range of loan sizes and uses captured in the Business Journal table. Local partners including Greater MSP note that SBA guarantees remain a core tool for owners who need long-term, lower-down-payment financing to buy or expand facilities.
Oversight And Scrutiny
The federal backdrop is getting tighter. The SBA has ramped up scrutiny of pandemic-era relief programs, and in January 2026 the agency suspended nearly 7,000 Minnesota borrowers as part of fraud reviews, according to MPR News. That stepped-up oversight is pushing lenders and underwriting teams to collect more documentation and, in some cases, stretch out the time it takes to close SBA-guaranteed deals. For Twin Cities borrowers, it all adds up to a more cautious lending environment, even as capital is still on the table…