What the SBA PPP dataset actually contains
When Congress funded the Paycheck Protection Program in 2020, it directed public money through banks to small businesses to cover payroll during the pandemic. Because the program used public funds, the Small Business Administration released borrower-level records under the Freedom of Information Act, and continued updating that release as more loans were reported and reconciled, through a final version published in September 2024.
Each record typically includes the borrower name, business address, industry classification under the NAICS system, the number of jobs the loan was reported to support, and the loan amount, either as an exact figure or a disclosed range depending on the loan size. Taken together across the full dataset, it is one of the largest public records of small business identity and payroll scale ever released by the federal government.
The program ran in two rounds, one in 2020 and a second in early 2021, each with its own application window and lender. That is worth keeping in mind when reading a record: a company that borrowed only in the first round and never reappeared in the second may simply not have needed a second loan, not necessarily an indicator of business health either way. The dataset records applications and approvals, not whether a loan was fully forgiven, though most were under the program’s terms.
Legitimate uses for PPP company data
Researchers use the dataset to study small business survival and payroll patterns during the pandemic. Journalists have used it to verify claims companies made about their size and industry. For a buyer building an acquisition database, it is a genuinely useful sourcing input: a NAICS code and an approximate employee count, tied to a real company name and address, is exactly the kind of observed data point that turns a list of business names into a filterable universe by industry and geography.
It is also useful for market sizing. Counting how many companies in a given NAICS code and region reported PPP loans gives a rough, but real, sense of how fragmented or concentrated a sector is, well before any acquisition thesis narrows further.
Lenders and diligence teams sometimes reference the dataset too, as one input among several when confirming a business’s operating history predates a stated founding date, or when reconciling a company’s own account of its size during the pandemic against an independent public record.
How SIFT lets you search PPP-derived data free
SIFT has folded PPP records into its broader company universe of 3.85 million businesses, growing toward roughly 10 million, alongside business registrations and other public sources. You can search by company name directly through the universal search, the same way you would search for any company in the off-market universe, and a PPP match surfaces alongside anything else known about that business. You can also filter by industry and geography to pull every company in a NAICS code and region that shows up in the program data, useful for anyone building a sourcing universe from scratch. The full search and CSV export, up to 10,000 rows, is free.
Honest limitations of the dataset
PPP data reflects a single, narrow period: payroll operations during roughly 2020 and 2021. A company that borrowed then may have grown, shrunk, changed ownership, or closed since. Loan amount is not revenue, and job counts reported for a loan application are not a current headcount. Any figure SIFT derives or estimates from PPP data alongside other sources is shown as a range with a confidence label, never as a single asserted fact, because the underlying record is a historical snapshot, not a live business metric.
A note on privacy
This is public information released by a federal government agency under a public records law, not data scraped or purchased from a private source. Borrowers were notified, at the time of application, that program data of this kind could become subject to public disclosure. SIFT surfaces it the same way a researcher, journalist, or lender due-diligence team would: as one already-public data point, alongside other sources, in a searchable form. Search the dataset yourself on SIFT or read how it fits into a broader deal sourcing process.
Frequently asked questions
Is PPP loan data actually public?
Yes. The Paycheck Protection Program was funded with public money, and the Small Business Administration released borrower-level records under the Freedom of Information Act. This is government data, not a private data broker's product, and it names individual borrowers, loan amounts, and other program details.
How do I look up a company's PPP loan?
Search the company by name in a tool that has indexed the SBA dataset. SIFT includes PPP-derived records in its universal search, so typing a business name will surface a match if that company received a loan, along with the NAICS code, location, and reported jobs supported.
Is the PPP loan list still being updated?
No. The Paycheck Protection Program itself closed in 2021, and the SBA's public dataset reflects a final released version of the program's records, as of September 2024. It is a fixed historical record of that lending period, not a live feed of new loans.
What can PPP data actually tell me about a business?
It confirms the company existed and operated payroll during 2020 to 2021, and it gives a NAICS industry code, an address, an approximate employee count tied to the loan, and the loan amount range or figure reported. It does not tell you current revenue, ownership status, or whether the business is for sale. Treat it as one data point among several, not a full profile.