What is a CDFI, and why does Strata use them instead of another high-street broker?

A Community Development Finance Institution is a lender set up to fund businesses that high-street credit boxes reject. In the UK many CDFI facilities sit near British Business Bank-backed schemes. They are slower and more documentary than a 24-hour merchant advance — and usually longer and cheaper than the stack that got the business into trouble.

Mainstream brokers often do not bother. The file takes work, the commission is unattractive compared with a short-term product, and the lender will not accept a half-built pack. That is the gap Strata is in.

What a CDFI still needs

• A UK trading business, not a consumer
• A story that survives scrutiny (the stack, the HMRC position, the real revenue)
• Forecasts, not a screenshot of the bank app
• A use of funds that is refinance or working capital, not another spin of the same wheel

The six-question eligibility checker on the site is a first filter against typical CDFI / BBB-backed shape: UK-based, 12+ months trading, turnover over £100k, clean director status, no major CCJs over £5,000, business purpose. "Likely eligible" is not an offer. It is permission to have a proper conversation.