Albuquerque business microlender expands to 27 states, eyes more

Albuquerque-based microlender DreamSpring is now more than halfway to bringing small business loans to every corner of the country.

DreamSpring, a Community Development Finance Institution, ends the year with its loans and credit for businesses unable to get traditional bank loans now available in 27 states and with ambitions to be in all 50 states by the end of 2024, said Marisa Barrera, chief impact officer at DreamSpring.

DreamSpring, formerly known as Accion, served only five states in 2019 and, as recently as 2008, only loaned to small businesses in New Mexico. The pandemic years have pushed DreamSpring into online lending services.

“We have been at the forefront of identifying, innovating and implementing digital tools,” Barrera said. “We can have digital doors wide open around the country at all hours.”

DreamSpring’s exponential growth also stems from dropping out of the Accion U.S. Network in 2019 and rebranding as the independent DreamSpring small-business microlender.

DreamSpring now services the entire Southwest and lower Midwest to Illinois plus Texas, the Deep South and most of the Rust Belt. In the next two years, the organization plans to establish a presence across the northern tier of states and New England, Barrera said.

DreamSpring has issued more than 45,000 loans totaling over $504 million to small businesses since 1994. More recently, DreamSpring’s lending has doubled since 2019, from 1,570 loans for $21.6 million to 3,472 loans for $40 million in 2022 to date.

DreamSpring issued 22 loans in Santa Fe in 2018 and 2022, but the dollar amounts more than doubled, from $262,000 to $628,000.