Bags Partnerships
High level overview
The Validated Financial Data Layer for the Small Business Economy
Bags is a financial management platform that creates the missing data layer between institutions and small businesses.
Today, major banks, lenders, payment networks, and investment funds lack reliable visibility into small business financial health. Bags solves this by validating and structuring financial data at the source: the small business itself.
This enables the business to more effectively manage their operations and creates datasets that enable the partners and institutions that serve them to build new products, improve underwriting, monitor cohorts/portfolios, and cross-sell services with confidence.
The same data that helps small businesses make better decisions and access capital in turn helps institutions better support and engage the multi-trillion dollar segment.
Our platform is built for small businesses first, because active engagement from the segment is critical to supporting and growing the asset class. Our partnerships strategy is both our primary distribution channel and the foundation of a new architecture for small business services.
Every institution we onboard brings more businesses onto the platform, creating compounding data advantages that benefit the entire network.
Our Thesis
Institutions want to serve small businesses. Small businesses need institutional support. The gap between them is data.
Banks, payment networks, service providers, lenders, and investment funds make decisions based on financial information — but small business financial data is messy, inconsistent, and hard to validate at scale. Further, most of these institutions have access to specific subsets of data rather than comprehensive visibility.
Bags is the data infrastructure that closes this gap.
We partner with institutions that already own small business relationships:
1. CDFIs and Mission-Driven Lenders
Opening Pitch
"You have a data latency problem. Your best borrowers are performing well on their loans and improving their businesses, but you only see their financial performance once a year at tax filing—often 18 months after critical events. By the time you could refinance them into better rates, they have already gone to someone else. Bags closes that gap."
Key Value Props
Scalable technical assistance: Your team is already stretched. Bags provides always-on, self-serve financial education (peak usage: midnight to 4AM) so your staff can focus on high-touch work.
Pre-validated loan packages: Businesses arrive at underwriting with complete, GAAP-validated financials. Less back-and-forth, faster time to funding.
Portfolio monitoring: Real-time visibility into borrower health. Identify who needs intervention and who is ready for refinancing—before they leave.
Impact reporting: Track actual outcomes per dollar lent with validated data, not self-reported estimates.
Expected Objections
"We already provide technical assistance."
→ "Great. Your TA team is valuable for relationship building and complex cases. But they cannot be available at 2AM when business owners actually have time to work on their books. Bags supplements your team with always-on access and pre-validates financials so your staff spends less time on data collection and more time on advice."
"We do not have budget for new technology."
→ "At $24.99/business/month with volume discounts, the ROI is clear. If Bags helps you refinance even a few existing borrowers who would have gone elsewhere, you have paid for the platform. Plus, SSBCI and CDFI Fund programs often mandate technical assistance—this is scalable compliance."
"Our borrowers are not tech-savvy."
→ "The platform is designed for business owners who do not know accounting jargon. Plain-language explanations, prioritized action items, no open-ended prompts. Wells Fargo gave us a grant specifically for responsible AI use—no hallucination risk, no confusion."
Proof Points
TruFund partnership: White-labeled solution for intake, declinations, and portfolio monitoring
Historical outcomes: 5× faster time to funding, 4.5× higher approval rates at equitable lenders
Ford Foundation: $1M program-related investment to help CDFIs leverage the technology
2. Regional and Community Banks
Opening Pitch
"Your micro business segment represents a huge opportunity, but you are limited to credit scores and transaction data. A bad credit score does not mean a bad business—it might just mean poor book management or intentional cash float strategies. Bags gives you the validated financial picture you need to make different decisions."
Key Value Props
Cross-sell identification: Know which micro businesses are growing fast and ready to move into standard business banking. Grow with them instead of losing them.
Better underwriting data: Go beyond credit score and bank transactions. See validated P&L, balance sheet quality grades, and cash flow patterns.
CDFI handoff pipeline: Tag businesses as yours while routing early-stage capital needs to local CDFIs. Track when they are ready for your products.
Financial wellness offering: Complement your manual support with always-on platform access. Business owners are busy during 9-5; they need self-serve tools.
Expected Objections
"You are only 6 months into bank partnerships. That is new."
Response: Fair. We spent 7 years proving the model with CDFIs first—thousands of businesses, validated outcomes. We are new to banks because we wanted to get it right before scaling. That is why we propose crawl-walk-run: start with a referral partnership for quick launch, then progress to technical integration over time.
"Our compliance team will have concerns about fintech maturity."
Response: Bags is 7 years old with thousands of users. We have closed a $12.5M valuation round with Ford Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, and Zeal. Wells Fargo Foundation gave us a grant for responsible AI. We are not a startup—we are a proven platform moving into banking partnerships.
"We want payment solutions, not just lending tools."
Response: We partner with Finley for payment solutions. Same seed investor, we know each other's backends. Bags data and validation layer plus Finley payment tools can feel like one integrated offering—better transaction fees, interchange rates, the works.
Proof Points
M&T noted Bags mirrors features from GrowGrade, a product they previously built for sales enablement
Lauren scheduling intro to Vince, M&T micro business segment manager, for accelerator partnership
Platform usage peaks midnight-4AM: proof that self-serve tools reach business owners when 9-5 programs cannot
3. Investment Funds and VCs
Opening Pitch
"Your portfolio companies struggle to share financial data consistently. You get hand-typed numbers in emails that are not sufficient for intervention. By the time you see a problem, it is too late. Bags gives you real-time portfolio visibility with validated financials—not estimates, not self-reports, actual data."
Key Value Props
Portfolio monitoring: $500/month data fee generates insights across all portfolio companies. Identify which categories are struggling vs thriving before it is obvious.
Tangible value to portcos: Platform actually helps them operate better—CFO insights, financial hygiene, debt strategy—not just extractive reporting.
Responsible debt guidance: Protect your portfolio from predatory lending. Bags helps companies use debt strategically instead of diluting equity unnecessarily.
Deal flow: Bags sees thousands of businesses. Double opt-in referral system for companies matching your investment thesis.
Expected Objections
"Our portfolio companies use NetSuite, not QuickBooks."
Response: NetSuite users can export financials and upload to the platform. No direct integration yet because demand has been limited—most of our sweet spot ($500K-$20M revenue) uses QuickBooks. But the analysis works the same.
"Our founders are dilution-sensitive. They do not want debt."
Response: Responsible debt actually protects equity. Look at Parade/Cami—founder used equity for every inventory run, could not raise when market changed, forced into fire sale. Strategic debt creates resilient businesses. The key is knowing what you can afford and what use of funds will be profitable.
"This seems like a lot of overhead for our portcos."
Response: $24.99/month per business with volume discounts. The ROI for a company that avoids one bad debt decision or catches a cash flow issue early is massive. And you get the portfolio visibility as a bonus.
Proof Points
Siddhi Capital exploring partnership for portfolio monitoring across scout fund and growth fund
Target overlap: Bags sweet spot is $500K-$20M revenue businesses—matches most VC portfolio company profiles
Some VCs already use Bags for portfolio monitoring since portfolio companies struggle to share financial data consistently
4. Enterprise Partners and Foundations
Opening Pitch
"You want to train millions of small businesses, but scalable technical assistance is hard. Your CDFI partners are struggling with volume—they lose businesses because they cannot provide one-on-one support fast enough. Bags is the scalable layer that supplements human touch with always-on validated financial tools."
Key Value Props
Scalable technical assistance infrastructure: Build on what we have already built instead of starting from scratch. Peak usage midnight-4AM proves the model works for self-serve.
CDFI network amplification: We work with 65+ lenders. Enterprise partnership brings credibility and reach; we bring the validated data layer.
Product innovation data: Holistic validated small business data enables new products. Go beyond transaction data to full financial picture.
Grant validation: We piloted financial validation for grant applications. Found massive fraud—one business reported $250K revenue with $200K from other grants. We can validate real business operations.
Expected Objections
"We need to go through extensive vendor evaluation and legal review."
Response: Understood. We can start with network inclusion and amplification—no formal integration required. Get us into your Strive events, let us present to your CDFI partners. Build toward formal partnership as trust develops.
"How does this integrate with our existing educational platform?"
Response: Multiple paths. We can provide content for your platform, white-label our tools within your experience, or simply be a complementary resource you recommend. We are in the Wells Fargo AI working group—we can share our perspective on responsible vs risky AI use.
"What is the business model here?"
Response: $24.99/business/month subscription. We do not insist on origination fees with mission-driven partners. Co-investment opportunities for pilots exist. The goal is that every dollar you invest in small business support creates measurable impact—we can track that.
Proof Points
Goldman Sachs OMBW: White-labeled platform experience for participant financial management, access to capital, and debt management
Mastercard exploring three paths: amplification, co-investment pilots, and Strive network inclusion
Loan on card integration discussion: CDFIs can deliver loans onto cards, gain transaction-level visibility, help manage risk
Wells Fargo Foundation grant for responsible AI use in small business finance
Business Support Groups:
Opening Pitch:
Your mission is to support exceptional businesses—many of whom struggle with:
A financial operations knowledge gap
Incomplete or messy financials
Limited access to non-dilutive capital
Expensive MCA loans to solve solvable cash flow problems
Key Value Props
By layering Bags into your support stack, your founders gain:
A foundational understanding of their ideal financial tooling stack
A real time understanding of the quality of their financial documents
CFO insights reports to make stronger growth decisions
A financial dashboard to track their most important metrics
An infrastructure to manage their liabilities and track their COGS
A reporting infrastructure to keep the your team up to date with their growth
Non-dilutive capital access (CDFIs, banks, revenue-based lenders)
Lower dependency on emergency MCA loans
Universal Talking Points
Use across all archetypes:
7 years operating, thousands of businesses on platform
$12.5M valuation at seed plus; investors include Ford Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation
Wells Fargo Foundation grant for responsible AI—closed models, no hallucination risk
Peak usage midnight-4AM proves self-serve works for business owners
Historical outcomes: 250% YoY revenue growth, 5x faster time to funding, 4.5x higher approval rates
Three modules: Financial Hygiene, Financial Efficiency, Financial Growth—they compound
What We've Built for Small Businesses
Bags delivers three integrated capabilities that create the validated financial data institutions need while helping businesses operate better:
1. Financial Hygiene
AI-powered diagnostic tool that validates accounting data against GAAP standards. Includes grading of financial statement quality, explanation of key issues in plain language, and descriptive action items to make improvements. Businesses see and solve the things lenders and investors will notice — and fix them proactively.
2. Financial Efficiency
CFO-level insights without the CFO (and associated costs). Built to turn clean books into clear actions, where a small insight can drive outsized impact. Includes revenue forecasting, expense analysis, KPI tracking, and efficiency recommendations that surface patterns that drive profitability so businesses can act on them.
3. Financial Growth
Custom debt strategy with viable loan amount calculation, optimal use of funds analysis, and cash flow implications of repayment. Integrated debt schedule tracks all liabilities in one place. Businesses understand what they can borrow, why, and how to use and manage it.
These capabilities compound: clean books enable accurate analysis, accurate analysis informs smart borrowing, smart borrowing funds growth. The modules run every month to drive enterprise-quality financial health and decisioning.
Why Bags Wins at Scale
1. Enterprise Distribution Without Enterprise Sales
Bags embeds into institutional workflows via a co-branded or white-labeled experience that doesn't require changes to existing operational systems or complex internal adoption. Partners leverage Bags as a data and engagement layer, delivering the platform to their portfolios and cohorts. Minimum commitments of 250+ seats per partnership create predictable, high-volume onboarding.
2. Data Network Effects
Every business on Bags generates validated financial data that improve AI-driven insights, industry benchmarks, and risk/reporting models. More partners → more data → better products for everyone → more partners.
3. Multi-Use Platform
The same sets of validated data power multiple use cases: intake/underwriting optimization, portfolio monitoring, cross-sell identification, product/program development, impact reporting, and small business industry insights.
4. Impact and Regulatory Tailwinds
SSBCI, CDFI Fund, and SBA programs mandate technical assistance. Technical assistance is the core driver of impact in the small business segment. Financial institutions and enterprise partners need scalable ways to support small businesses. Bags is built to deliver validated data and education at scale, positioning us as the default data infrastructure for mission-aligned institutional engagement.
Proof Points & Measured Outcomes
Historical Outcomes
Bags users experience 250% YoY revenue growth, 4.5× higher approval rates at equitable lenders, and 5× faster time to funding. This outperforms a productive technical assistance ecosystem that currently drives 15–20% higher annual revenue growth, up to 25% higher approval rates, and a higher likelihood of repeat financing within three years.
<30 Day Average Data Latency
Bags reduces time-to-visibility for financial data, expands visibility where only a subset was previously accessible, and thereby simplifies an asset class that has historically been considered too complicated to invest in.
Business Model
SaaS pricing: $24.99/month per business
Partner volume discounts available. 250-seat minimum for partnerships.
Active Partner Programs
TruFund Financial Services
White-labeled solution for intake, declinations, portfolio monitoring.
Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women
White-labeled platform experience for participant financial management, access to capital, and debt management.
Wells Fargo Responsible AI Working Group
Free access to Financial Hygiene module for 1,000 businesses.
Forward-Looking Opportunity
Institutions investing in the small business asset class struggle to deploy that capital efficiently without reliable data. Many institutions are on the outside, looking for a viable path into the multi-trillion dollar segment.
Foundations want to train millions of small businesses. Banks want to identify cross-sell opportunities. CDFIs want to refinance good borrowers before they leave. VCs want real-time portfolio visibility.
The constraint is the same: validated financial data at scale.
Our vision is not to build another lender or another SaaS tool. It is to become the data infrastructure that institutions need to serve small businesses — profitably, at scale, and on purpose.