Capital for Tennessee operators
from the Mississippi to the Smokies.

Tennessee runs one of the most diverse and economically aggressive state economies in the country. Nashville is the corporate-headquarters capital of US healthcare — HCA Healthcare, Community Health Systems, LifePoint Health, Brookdale Senior Living, Acadia Healthcare, Surgery Partners, and a long roster of hospital-management and revenue-cycle companies sit within the metro, alongside Vanderbilt's academic-medicine engine. Memphis carries the FedEx World Hub, one of the largest air-cargo facilities on the planet, and a deep logistics and distribution economy that extends across West Tennessee, North Mississippi, and into Arkansas. Chattanooga carries the Volkswagen assembly plant and one of the most-quoted urban turnarounds in the country. Knoxville carries the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a deepening healthcare and manufacturing book. Middle Tennessee carries the Nissan Smyrna and Nissan Decherd plants — Smyrna is one of the largest single auto assembly plants in North America. Tennessee has no state income tax, which has made it a magnet for corporate relocations and a top-three US net-inbound migration state. Banks, by structure, struggle to keep up with that pace. Goliath was built to.

Our Tennessee pipeline reaches every region of the state. The Nashville metro brings us the densest deal flow — Downtown, the Gulch, East Nashville, 12 South, Germantown, Sylvan Park, and out through Williamson, Wilson, Rutherford, and Sumner counties. The Memphis metro covers Downtown, Midtown, East Memphis, Cordova, Bartlett, and Germantown, plus the broader DeSoto County, Mississippi suburbs. The Knoxville metro covers Knoxville, Farragut, Maryville, and Oak Ridge. The Chattanooga metro covers Chattanooga, East Ridge, and the broader Hamilton County region. The Tri-Cities cover Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol. The Clarksville metro covers Clarksville and Fort Campbell.

The bank-lending coverage gap in Tennessee

Tennessee has a wider small-business credit gap than people expect, particularly outside Nashville's professional-services core. Community-bank consolidation has thinned the lender field outside the major metros, and the surviving regional and national institutions structurally favor commercial real estate, healthcare-syndication relationships, and high-net-worth lending over the $50K to $500K working-capital tickets that Tennessee small businesses actually need. The result: a Broadway honky-tonk operator riding a slow January, a Memphis logistics operator ramping for FedEx peak season, a Chattanooga VW supplier financing a tooling change, a Knoxville healthcare practice — strong, deposit-rich businesses — frequently cannot get a timely yes from a bank. We fill that gap.

We are deposit-based underwriters. We read your four most recent months of business bank statements, your ledger, and how you actually operate the company. We do not require two years of tax returns, audited financials, or a 720 FICO. That approach is well-matched to the Tennessee mix because it accommodates the credit-card-heavy Nashville restaurant, the receivable-heavy automotive supplier, the project-based contractor, and the cash-heavy Memphis BBQ operator on the same underwriting bench. We routinely fund operators in their first year as long as deposit patterns support the offer.

The Tennessee industry mix, the way we see it

Healthcare anchors our Tennessee book — HCA, Community Health, LifePoint, Brookdale, Surgery Partners, Vanderbilt, St. Jude, and a long tail of hospital management, revenue cycle, and medical services. Logistics anchored by the FedEx Memphis World Hub. Music and entertainment in Nashville. Automotive-tier suppliers around Nissan Smyrna/Decherd and VW Chattanooga. Hospitality across Nashville, Memphis, and the Smokies. Manufacturing through Chattanooga, Knoxville, and the Tri-Cities. The Oak Ridge nuclear and research economy. Restaurants and retail through every metro round out the top of the pipeline.

Tennessee is best understood as three grand divisions — West, Middle, and East — each anchored by one or more major metros. Below is how the major metros break down in our book.

Nashville

Nashville is the dominant single Tennessee market in our book and one of the most aggressively growing metros in the country. The corporate-headquarters healthcare economy anchored by HCA, Community Health Systems, LifePoint, Brookdale, and Acadia drives a deep professional-services and contractor book. Music Row, Broadway, and the broader live-entertainment economy drive a deep hospitality and vendor book. The Nissan North America headquarters in Franklin and the Mazda-Toyota Tennessee supplier ring add a manufacturing slice. We fund medical and dental practices, restaurants and hospitality through Broadway, the Gulch, East Nashville, and 12 South, contractor and trade businesses, and the music-industry vendor and event-services businesses that run with the entertainment calendar.

Memphis

Memphis is the dominant single West Tennessee market and one of the largest US logistics hubs by volume. The FedEx World Hub at Memphis International is the second-busiest cargo airport in the world by tonnage, and the broader logistics economy that orbits FedEx runs through the metro, DeSoto County, Mississippi, and across the river into Arkansas. Beyond logistics, Memphis carries the St. Jude pediatric-medicine economy, the broader healthcare cluster anchored by Methodist Le Bonheur and Baptist Memorial, and a deep BBQ-and-blues hospitality book through Beale Street, downtown, and Cooper-Young. We fund logistics operators, drayage and 3PL companies, freight brokers, medical practices, restaurants and hospitality, and the long tail of contractor businesses across the metro.

Knoxville

Knoxville anchors East Tennessee and combines the University of Tennessee economy, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory nuclear and research economy, a deepening healthcare cluster anchored by the UT Medical Center and Covenant Health, and a growing manufacturing book. We fund medical and dental practices, contractor and trade businesses, restaurants and hospitality through Market Square and the Old City, and the long tail of professional-services and engineering businesses orbiting UT and Oak Ridge.

Chattanooga

Chattanooga anchors the I-75 corridor between Nashville and Atlanta and is one of the most-cited urban-turnaround stories in the country. The metro economy is built on the Volkswagen Chattanooga assembly plant (and its tier-one supplier ring), a deep insurance and corporate-headquarters book anchored by Unum, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, and Tennessee Valley Authority, and a deepening technology and professional-services book downtown. We fund VW suppliers, contractor and trade businesses, restaurants and hospitality through downtown and the North Shore, and the long tail of professional-services firms supporting the metro.

Clarksville

Clarksville anchors the northwest corner of Middle Tennessee and combines the Fort Campbell military economy (Fort Campbell straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky line and is the home of the 101st Airborne Division), the Austin Peay State University economy, and a deep contractor, trucking, and trade book. We fund military-adjacent service businesses, contractor and trade businesses, restaurants and hospitality, and the long tail of retail and service businesses supporting one of the fastest-growing metros in Tennessee.