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Siena Lending Group
David Grende co-founded Siena Lending Group, a Franklin BSP-owned non-bank ABL lender, in 2012.
Siena Lending Group
Siena Lending Group was established in 2012 by David Grende and a core team of colleagues who had previously built and run asset-based lending businesses together at Burdale Capital Finance, a Bank of Ireland subsidiary. That group worked as a unit at Burdale until its sale to Wells Fargo, then reunited to launch Siena as an independent platform. Today the firm is a portfolio company of Franklin BSP Capital Corporation, an affiliate of Benefit Street Partners, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. The ownership structure gives Siena an institutional balance sheet while preserving operational autonomy under the leadership team that has worked alongside each other for over two decades. Siena provides senior secured asset-based loans, working capital facilities, debtor-in-possession (DIP) financings, and exit financings to middle-market companies across the U.S. and Canada. Typical commitments range from $10 million to over $100 million, underwritten against accounts receivable, inventory, and other working-capital assets. The firm’s origination footprint spans seven U.S. offices plus a Toronto presence, with separate managing directors covering the Northeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West Coast regions. Deals commonly support refinancings, acquisitions, recapitalizations, and stressed or transitional situations. The firm publicly cites Lovesac as a multi-year borrower that scaled alongside the credit facility, and lists more than 50 deals closed by a single senior originator during his tenure. Since inception, the firm has closed more than $2 billion in total facilities. The team combines seasoned originators and underwriters, many of whom trained at CIT, GE Capital, Wells Fargo Capital Finance, and HSBC’s ABL group before joining Siena. Offices operate in Stamford, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Toronto. In 2025, Siena appointed Michael Brandt — a former CFO of GE Capital’s Corporate Lending unit — as Chief Financial Officer, signaling a deepening of institutional infrastructure under the Franklin umbrella. Siena’s structural distinction lies in its status as a non-bank portfolio company of a large publicly traded asset manager. That architecture removes the regulatory capital constraints and compliance overhead that shape the lending decisions at traditional bank ABL groups, while still granting access to a committed, long-duration pool of capital. The founding team’s two-decade tenure as a unit further concentrates institutional memory, allowing the firm to structure around collateral classes and credit stories that many bank underwriters would decline.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2012
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Stamford
Corporate office
Stamford, CT, United States
Additional offices
Boston, MA · Chicago, IL · Los Angeles, CA · Cleveland, OH · Dallas, TX · Toronto, Canada · New York, NY
Principals
David Grende
Chief Executive Officer
Miin Chen
Chief Operating Officer
Todd Eubanks
Chief Risk Officer
Michael Brandt
Chief Financial Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Siena Lending Group?
David Grende, the co-founder and CEO, leads the firm. He is supported by Todd Eubanks (Chief Risk Officer) and a team of senior underwriters, most of whom previously worked under Grende at Burdale Capital Finance or held senior roles at GE Capital and CIT. Credit approval ultimately sits with the senior leadership group Grende has maintained for more than two decades.
How is Siena Lending Group structured — is it a bank or a fund?
Siena is an independent non-bank asset-based lender, structured as a portfolio company of Franklin BSP Capital Corporation, which is an affiliate of Benefit Street Partners and a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (Franklin Templeton). It is not a regulated bank, which allows it greater flexibility on advance rates, collateral types, and covenant structures than a typical bank ABL group.
What types of financing does Siena provide, and which does it avoid?
Siena provides senior secured asset-based revolving credit facilities and term loans, working capital loans, DIP financings, and exit financings. The firm does not originate cash-flow-only loans, mezzanine debt, or equity. Its underwriting is anchored to the liquidation value of hard assets and working capital, primarily accounts receivable and inventory.
What is Siena’s typical loan size and geographic reach?
Hold sizes range from $10 million to over $100 million per facility. The firm lends across the United States and Canada through origination offices in Stamford, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Toronto, with regional managing directors covering the Northeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West Coast.
Who owns Siena Lending Group and how does that affect its capital base?
Siena is a portfolio company of Franklin BSP Capital Corporation, an affiliate of Benefit Street Partners, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN). This provides Siena with a permanent or long-duration institutional capital base rather than a fund-life constraint, meaning it can hold assets as a buy-and-manage lender instead of being forced to syndicate or liquidate by a set fund maturity.
What is Siena’s posture on co-investing or sharing deals with external lenders?
The firm offers facilities of $10 million to $100 million and can hold senior positions on its own balance sheet. While not a syndicated-loan house by design, the firm participates in club-style ABL transactions where another lender provides a complementary tranche or an agent bank brings Siena into a deal to add flexibility on advance structures. Its Franklin BSP backing makes it a reliable hold-level partner when a lead arranger needs non-bank capacity.
What is the tenure of Siena’s leadership team?
The core team — led by CEO David Grende and including senior originators and risk professionals — has worked together for more than 20 years, dating back to their time building Burdale Capital Finance at Bank of Ireland and, before that, various GE Capital and CIT platforms. The firm publicly states on its website that the Siena team has been together for 20+ years.
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