01Restaurants and hospitality
Funding for restaurants and hospitality.
Minimum average deposits
Hospitality is the sector merchant cash advances were built around. Takings arrive by card, every day, in large numbers of small transactions, which is the most readable pattern a funder can be shown and the reason approval here is quicker than almost anywhere else.
02How the money arrives
What your statements actually show.
Underwriting reads your bank account, not your industry. Knowing how revenue reaches the account in this sector is what makes the difference between a file that is understood and one that is misread.
- Revenue shape
- Card-dominant and daily. High transaction count, low average ticket, settled by the processor into the business account within a day or two. Delivery platforms add a second stream that arrives as periodic batches, net of commission.
- How it reads to a funder
- The cleanest profile on this list. Daily deposits of similar size, repeating week on week, with a visible weekend shape. An underwriter can size a file from three months of this with very little explanation needed.
- Seasonality
- Sharply location-dependent rather than sector-wide. Beach, campus, resort and stadium-adjacent sites can swing enormously between seasons; a city-centre lunch trade runs comparatively flat. Where the swing is large it changes which product fits, not whether funding is possible.
03What it funds
What the money is usually for.
Not a list of everything money can do. These are the things owners in this sector actually come to us for.
- Kitchen equipment, refrigeration and refits, where breakdown stops trade the same day
- Fitting out a second site, or taking over a lease that has become available
- Working capital through a known slow season
- Stock and staffing ahead of a peak that is already booked
- Point-of-sale and delivery infrastructure
Amounts run from $15,000 to $20,000,000, sized against what the account takes in rather than against what the money is for.
04Strength
What strengthens the file here.
The general list is on the qualification page. These are the things that carry particular weight in this sector.
Reads well
- Daily card settlement of consistent size, which is the pattern this product is priced for
- Deposits that recover predictably after each slow stretch, rather than trending down
- Few or no negative days, which matter more here than the headline total
- Delivery platform income banked into the same account, so total revenue is visible in one place
05Friction
What complicates it.
None of these is an automatic no. Each one changes what is available, and each one is better raised by you at the start than found in the statements later.
Positions already stacked on the same receivables
Hospitality is the most heavily brokered sector in this market and many operators already carry one or two advances. Stacking limits are reached quickly, and an undisclosed existing position is usually found in the statements anyway. Disclose it at the start and it is worked with.
Delivery income read as a separate business
Platform payouts arrive as third-party batches, net of commission, on their own schedule. Underwriters unfamiliar with the pattern sometimes discount them entirely, which understates real revenue. Naming the platforms up front prevents it.
Thin margins against a fixed debit
Card volume can be strong while the margin under it is slight. A debit sized off gross takings rather than what the site actually keeps is the most common way a well-approved file becomes a difficult one.
A fact that arrives with an explanation is worked with. The same fact found in the statements is a surprise, and surprises cost you terms.
06Which product fits
Not every sector wants the same instrument.
We arrange four. These are the ones that tend to suit restaurants and hospitality, and why. Which one is right for you is decided on your file, not on your sector.
Rates published
Merchant cash advance
The native fit. Daily card settlement is exactly what the pricing assumes and exactly what makes the decision fast.
How it worksQuoted per file
Revenue-based financing
Better where the seasonal swing is genuinely large, because the payment falls with the off-season instead of ignoring it.
How it worksFind out where your file stands.
The application takes about fifteen minutes and asks for 3–6 months of business bank statements. If something on this page describes your business, say so at the start: it is the difference between a file that is read correctly and one that is read twice.