FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY — November 12, 2025 — TruFund Financial Services, Inc., a leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), and Bags, a financial management and access-to-capital platform, have announced a groundbreaking partnership to provide a modern, co-branded technical assistance and loan servicing program aimed at using AI to accelerate equitable access to debt financing for small businesses.
With an initial focus on Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and New York, the partnership combines TruFund’s deep expertise in community lending with Bags’ AI-powered platform to deliver an intuitive, scalable solution for business owners navigating capital readiness, loan packaging, and long-term financial health.
“This partnership reimagines what technical assistance can look like in 2025,” said James Bason, President and CEO of TruFund Financial Services. “Together, we’re building a smarter, more scalable, and outcomes-driven model for preparing businesses to raise capital, grow sustainably, and build long-term financial resilience.”
The program centers on TruFund’s Small Business Loan, which offers loans ranging from $50,000 to $350,000 for eligible businesses with at least two years of operating history. Entrepreneurs can use the funds to fuel growth through investments in equipment, hiring, marketing, technology upgrades, or debt consolidation. As part of the new initiative, qualified applicants and borrowers will also receive free access to the Bags AI Financial insights platform, including:
- AI-assisted, GAAP-aligned analysis of the accuracy, clarity, and completeness of financial documents, giving business owners a roadmap to become capital-ready with verified financial documents.
- AI-powered CFO Insight Reports that break down strengths, weaknesses, and trends that drive financial growth, helping businesses make stronger financial decisions.
- Capital readiness tools that help businesses identify the ideal affordable loan amount, the most efficient use of funds, and a defined debt strategy towards their goals.
- A debt and financial management dashboard to track repayments and forecast future obligations.
- Post-funding guidance to ensure capital is deployed and repaid effectively. This vital support enables recipients to track financial performance and manage funds more strategically and responsibly, maximizing long-term sustainability and community impact.
These features, combined with pre- and post-funding support from a Bags coach, help entrepreneurs not only understand their loan eligibility, but also strengthen their financial profile. The Bags platform ensures that prospective borrowers submit complete, high-quality loan applications that reduce friction in underwriting and speed up time to funding. Businesses that use Bags increase their likelihood of funding by 4.5X.
“We use responsible AI to make access to capital simpler, fairer, and smarter,” said Daniel Taylor, CEO and Co-Founder of Bags. “By partnering with TruFund, we’re proving that technical assistance doesn’t have to be boring, bureaucratic, or disconnected from business outcomes. It can be insightful, useful, and a major driver of economic growth.”
This partnership offers a forward-looking model for how mission-driven lenders and CDFIs can modernize their technical assistance infrastructure through partnerships with innovative, AI-enabled companies. By embedding powerful digital tools and human support directly into the capital access journey, TruFund and Bags are reducing the time, cost, and complexity of underwriting while empowering entrepreneurs to grow with confidence.
TruFund and Bags hope this collaboration not only drives impact for participating businesses, but also inspires other lending institutions to reimagine technical assistance as less an administrative and compliance-driven task and more a growth enabling, value-generating pillar of the small business lending experience.
Interested in seeing this innovation in action? TruFund and Bags invite you to a special webinar to discuss how AI is transforming technical assistance and accelerating equitable access to capital for small businesses.
Join TruFund’s Veronica Reyes, VP | Director of National Market Operations & Victoria Tate, Manager of Lending Programs & Administration, and Bags Co-Founders, Daniel Taylor and William Hayden, to learn more about this groundbreaking partnership, the features of the new program, and how it is helping entrepreneurs achieve financial resilience.
Register for the webinar here: https://form.jotform.com/trufund/the-future-of-ta-at-trufund-webinar
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About TruFund Financial Services, Inc.
TruFund Financial Services is a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) committed to providing innovative financial solutions to small businesses, particularly those in underserved communities. Through its lending programs and technical assistance, TruFund helps entrepreneurs build strong, sustainable enterprises that drive economic growth.
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About Bags
Bags is a financial growth platform built to help small businesses manage, borrow, and spend money better. The company combines an AI-powered platform with tech-enabled accounting, bookkeeping, and tax solutions to help small businesses grow.
The Bags platform consolidates financial data, delivers deeper financial insights, and helps clients access and manage the capital they need to scale. By combining intelligent tools and automations with a world-class accounting team, Bags ensures that every client has the clarity and confidence to make smarter business decisions in real time.
Founded on the belief that finance should be a core pillar of small business growth, Bags partners with financial institutions and business support organizations to deliver technical assistance and portfolio management solutions that provide ongoing financial visibility and support sustainable expansion.
For more information, visit www.securebags.com.
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Media Contact:
Allison M. Washington
Assistant Vice President | Director of Marketing & Communications
TruFund Financial Services
awashington@trufund.org
917.838.5804
