A Brief History

Business Lenders was founded in 1994 by Penn Ritter, his father, George Ritter, and local attorney Thomas Kellogg, during a significant credit crunch that affected the Northeast U.S. Their focus was helping small business owners by providing much needed capital. In many cases the small businesses were owned and operated by first-generation families.

Business Lenders continues its mission of making dreams of success happen for entrepreneurs and business owners across the county by providing capital to start, build and grow their businesses. Dedication to serving small businesses propelled the company to a national status, where it ranked among the top ten non-bank, SBA lenders for volume of loans approved in six of its eight years of existence.

The company was sold to Medallion Financial, a New York-based specialty finance company in 1997. In 2005 the company was purchased by Ritter, his senior management team and Merrill Lynch. The little company which was started in New England over ten years ago, and is now financed by Merrill Lynch, one of the world's leading financial services companies.