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Background on Upfunding
Upfunding provides revenue-based financing, primarily to Latino-owned small businesses across the United States. For many of these business owners, navigating financing can be complex and opaque. Upfunding was built around a different principle: clarity and speed should be the default, not the exception. A business owner should get a straightforward answer — yes or no — quickly enough to make real decisions without disrupting their operations.
That philosophy shows up in Upfunding's core promise: an offer or decline in under two hours. Delivering on that promise at scale meant rethinking the underwriting workflow from end to end.
Pain Points
Before Heron, every submission at Upfunding went through a multi-stage manual review. A human underwriter had to examine every bank statement before passing the deal to an analyst for full underwriting. The process was slow, had too many stages, and left the team with no visibility into rejected deals. Deals that didn't qualify simply disappeared into a blind spot with no data captured, meaning the team couldn't learn from patterns or tighten their screening over time.
For UpFunding, simplifying the internal process was always about the end customer. Fewer stages meant faster answers, and faster answers meant business owners could make confident decisions and keep moving. The demand was already there. Their marketing team was ready to deliver more leads, and brokers were eager to send more deals — but operations needed to catch up first.
"We were very limited to add new brokers or to increase our marketing budget because we knew we couldn't handle more submissions per month. In order to grow, we had to add staff. We couldn't scale."
Upfunding knew exactly where they wanted to go - serve more businesses, faster, with the same lean team. They just needed the right infrastructure to get there.
Why Upfunding Chose Heron
Upfunding made internal improvements to their internal process to speed things up, but the gains were marginal. With a human being required at every stage of the funnel, there was no way to process the volume of submissions they were targeting. The team needed a partner that could help them eliminate manual bottlenecks entirely — not just shave minutes off them.
What stood out about Heron was the willingness to build alongside Upfunding. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all tool, Heron worked collaboratively — implementing features based on Upfunding's feedback, deploying changes quickly, and integrating directly into the systems the team was already using.
Just as important, Heron integrates directly into the Cloudsquare Platform, allowing Upfunding to embed underwriting intelligence into a system that already manages deal intake, pipeline visibility, and execution from submission through funding.
"It seems like they are working next office to us. I mean, we could just ring the bell and someone will come out and help us out."
How Upfunding Simplified Underwriting with Heron
Upfunding's goal was to strip unnecessary complexity out of the underwriting process — so that every decision is faster, clearer, and more confident. Heron powers the key parts of that workflow, integrating directly into the Cloudsquare Platform so Upfunding can execute every step in a single system with zero manual data entry.
- Heron Parsers give every underwriter — new or experienced — a single, standardized view of every bank statement, regardless of the issuing bank. What used to require manually interpreting statements from dozens of different formats now appears in one clear layout. Speed matters, but clarity matters just as much — and this single view delivers both.
- Heron Policy Checks automatically screen submissions against Upfunding's qualification criteria, routing out non-viable deals in seconds so underwriters focus their time on opportunities that can actually reach funding.
- Heron Data Enrichment & Integration APIs push validated data directly into the Cloudsquare Platform, eliminating manual data entry at the start of the funnel and ensuring complete application data from the first touch. With a single button press inside the platform, underwriters can pull Heron data directly into their workflow.
- Heron Fraud Detection validates bank account information through Plaid integration and supports decision logic file uploads — replacing a years-old Excel process with a two-minute automated workflow that gives the team greater confidence on every deal.
Outcomes
1. 3–4x More Volume, Same Team — Hours Back Every Day
Before Heron, each underwriter processed 10–15 applications on a good day. Today, that number is 50–60 — a 3–4x increase without adding a single person to the team. With zero data entry at the start of the funnel and every bank statement standardized into one view, underwriters spend their time on actual credit decisions instead of manual data work. The hours saved per underwriter, per day, add up fast.
"We are processing at least three or four times more. And we haven't grown the team."
That reclaimed time has unlocked Upfunding's ability to take on more brokers, increase marketing spend, and grow their pipeline — all while maintaining the speed and clarity their merchants expect. Within the Cloudsquare Platform, that increased volume is handled without adding operational complexity or manual overhead.
2. Underwriter Time Goes to Deals That Matter
With Heron's automated policy checks, 40% of Upfunding's submissions are routed out in under a minute — deals that previously required an underwriter to manually review before anyone realized they weren't viable. That's hours of labor every day that used to go toward applications that would never reach funding. Now, underwriters only touch deals worth their time — and business owners who do qualify get their answer faster because of it.
"Today we have declined under 20 to 30 minutes. And probably 40% of our submissions take one minute."
Across all submissions, the average decision time sits below 20–30 minutes and offers go out in under 1.5 hours, keeping Upfunding's two-hour promise to every broker and merchant, every month.
3. Seamless Integration Into Cloudsquare
Heron plugs directly into Upfunding's Cloudsquare Platform, so the team never has to leave their existing environment or change how they work. Validated data flows in automatically, deals are placed across pipelines without manual entry, and underwriters can pull Heron insights with a single button press. The integration meant zero disruption to Upfunding's existing workflows.
"The integration was very, very easy. I really don't remember any type of pains during the integration — and all the features we've been requesting since day one have been implemented with no trouble."
With Heron embedded directly in the Cloudsquare Platform, Upfunding's operations run in a single system from submission intake through funding.
4. Faster Onboarding, Deeper Confidence
Heron has also changed how quickly new underwriters become productive. With Heron's single standardized view for every bank statement — regardless of the issuing bank — new underwriters can start working deals almost immediately, without needing years of experience reading raw statements.
"It's very easy for someone who has never seen a statement in their life to start working with Heron."
This faster onboarding means Upfunding's service quality doesn't dip when the team grows or turns over — business owners and brokers see the same fast, clear experience regardless of who's handling their file. Within the Cloudsquare Platform, those workflows remain structured and consistent, so every deal is processed with the same level of accuracy and speed.
Together, Upfunding, Heron, and Cloudsquare have turned what was once a complex, multi-stage underwriting process into something simple, fast, and clear. Upfunding designs the experience their merchants rely on. Heron powers the workflow behind it. Cloudsquare ensures every step is executed seamlessly in a single system. The result is a financing process where a business owner gets a confident answer quickly, underwriters spend their time on decisions that matter, and the whole operation scales without adding complexity.
About UpFunding
Upfunding is building a simpler, faster financing experience for Latino-owned small businesses in the U.S. By removing unnecessary complexity and focusing on clarity, business owners can access capital and make decisions with confidence. Upfunding also work closely with brokers and partners to support their Latino clients with a more reliable and transparent process, and competitive terms. Learn more at www.upfundingcapital.com.
About Cloudsquare
Cloudsquare is the leading end-to-end lending platform, uniquely powered by Salesforce, to deliver unparalleled flexibility and innovation for lenders and brokers. With a commitment to optimizing lending processes through cutting-edge technology, Cloudsquare provides robust, scalable solutions that empower clients to achieve greater efficiency and growth. Celebrated by industry leaders, Cloudsquare has earned a place on the Inc. 5000 list as one of America's fastest-growing companies and is consistently rated a top service provider on platforms like Salesforce AppExchange, G2, Clutch, and Manifest. Learn more at www.cloudsquare.io.
