The other three
01Revenue-based financing
Funding repaid as an agreed percentage of revenue, so the payment moves with the business rather than against it.
The same idea as an advance, with the repayment reshaped. Instead of a fixed amount leaving the account every week regardless of trade, an agreed share of what comes in goes back out. A slow month costs less; a strong month clears it faster.
02How it works
The mechanics.
What the instrument actually does, before anything about price.
Repayment is a percentage of revenue rather than a fixed sum, so the amount collected changes with what the business actually takes. There is no fixed end date: the term is however long the agreed total takes to arrive.
That is the whole trade. A fixed weekly debit is cheaper to administer and usually clears sooner, but it is indifferent to a bad month. A revenue share is not indifferent, and that flexibility is what you are paying for.
It reads best where revenue is genuinely uneven but genuinely there: seasonal trade, campaign-driven sales, businesses whose good months and bad months are both predictable in shape if not in size.
03Price
Why there is no range on this page.
Every other page on this site prints its numbers. This one does not, and saying why is better than filling the space with something we would have to walk back.
Quoted per file
We publish the full merchant cash advance range because we place enough of them to stand behind it. We do not publish a range for this one, because the share taken and the total repaid move with how uneven the revenue is, and a range wide enough to be honest would be too wide to be useful. It is quoted per file, against your statements, before anything is signed.
What we do publish
The full merchant cash advance range is on this site: factor rate, origination fee and term, with a calculator that shows the total to repay. If a published price is what you need in order to compare, start there.
Rates and terms, in fullWhere this is the right shape
- Seasonal businesses that would struggle with the same debit in February as in July
- Trade that swings on campaigns, contracts or weather rather than running flat
- Owners who would rather pay more in total than risk a fixed debit in a slow month
Where it is the wrong shape
- Businesses with flat, predictable revenue. If every month looks the same, you are paying for flexibility you will never use, and a fixed structure will usually clear sooner.
- Situations that need a known end date. There is not one: the term is however long the revenue takes.
Telling you an instrument is wrong for you costs us a file. Not telling you costs you more.
05Sectors
Where this one tends to fit.
Each of these pages says why, in the context of how that industry is actually paid.
Restaurants and hospitality
Better where the seasonal swing is genuinely large, because the payment falls with the off-season instead of ignoring it.
Funding for restaurants and hospitalityRetail and e-commerce
The better shape where the fourth-quarter swing is severe, because repayment eases through the quiet quarter.
Funding for retail and e-commerceManufacturing
Where an advance would be too rigid, tying repayment to actual revenue absorbs the production gap better.
Funding for manufacturingProfessional services
Suits sharply seasonal practices, where a fixed debit through the quiet months is the wrong shape.
Funding for professional servicesSalons and wellness
Suits membership-led models and sites with a pronounced seasonal shape.
Funding for salons and wellnessLandscaping and grounds care
The most honest fit for a genuinely seasonal operator, because repayment falls with the off-season instead of ignoring it.
Funding for landscaping
One application covers all four.
You do not have to decide which instrument you want before you start. The application asks the same questions whichever one ends up fitting, and which it is comes out of your statements rather than out of the box you ticked.