Retail and Convenience
Card volume runs all day and inventory has to be paid for before it sells. Advances here usually go into stock ahead of a season.
Direct funder · 10 years · New York
Money against the sales already coming in
We buy a stated dollar amount of the receivables your business has not collected yet, and pay you a smaller amount for them today. From then on an agreed share of each day’s settlements comes to us until that stated amount has been delivered. It is a purchase, not a loan, and it is the only thing we do.
- $0to apply
- Dailyremittance from deposits
- Nocollateral pledged
Approval in 2 hoursfunds in 24 to 48
$7,500 – $750,000Advance amount
2 hoursTypical approval
24 – 48 hoursSigned to funded
Since 2016Funding U.S. businesses directly
Start here
What a merchant cash advance actually is
It is not a loan, and the difference is not a technicality — it changes what you owe, how you pay it, and what happens in a slow month.
It is a purchase, not a loan
Nothing is borrowed and nothing accrues. We agree a dollar figure of receivables your business has yet to collect, buy that figure from you at a discount, and wire you the discounted amount. Because no principal is lent, there is no interest rate, no annual percentage rate and no maturity date anywhere in the agreement.
The cost is one number, fixed at signing
Instead of a rate that compounds, the price of an advance is a factor rate: a single multiplier applied once. Multiply the amount advanced by the factor rate and you have the whole obligation, in dollars, before you sign. It does not grow if the term runs long and it does not shrink if the term runs short.
Collection follows the takings
An agreed percentage of each day’s card settlements, or of the deposits into your business account, comes to us automatically. Busy days send more and quiet days send less, which is the point of the structure. When the purchased amount has been delivered, collection stops on its own.
Approval turns on cash flow first
We read bank statements before anything else: the size of the deposits, how regularly they arrive, and what the account looks like between them. Credit is reviewed and there is a published floor, but consistency in the deposits is what carries the decision.
What it costs
A factor rate, worked through in dollars
A factor rate is a single multiplier applied once to the amount advanced, and it settles the entire cost at signing. An interest rate behaves differently — it accrues against a balance over time, so the longer the money is outstanding the more it costs, whereas a factor rate neither compounds nor grows.
A worked example
- Amount advanced
- $75,000
- Factor rate
- 1.32
- Total to be delivered
- $99,000
- Remittance
- 11% of daily card settlements
- Estimated term
- About 9 months at roughly $100,000 a month in card volume
These figures are an illustration of how the arithmetic works, not an offer; your advance amount, factor rate, remittance percentage and term are set after we have reviewed your statements.
Who qualifies
Five numbers, published, so you can rule yourself out in ten seconds
- Time in business
- 6 monthsMeasured from the date the entity started trading, not the date it was registered.
- Monthly revenue
- $15,000Gross deposits into the business account. Steady months read better than one exceptional one.
- Business bank account
- RequiredOpen, active and in the legal name of the business. Personal accounts cannot be used.
- Personal credit score
- 500 or aboveWe do review credit and this floor is real. Above it, deposit consistency is what the decision turns on.
- Location
- United StatesThe business must be based and trading in the US. We fund in all fifty states.
Meeting all five does not by itself mean an offer — every file is underwritten on its own facts, and we decline. It does mean the conversation is worth having. We do not fund gambling, adult entertainment, firearms, cannabis, and anything unlawful.
Paperwork
Four documents, and a short list of things we will never ask for
What we ask for
- Four months of business bank statementsPDFs downloaded from the bank, all pages, not screenshots or a spreadsheet export.
- Photo identification for the signerDriver’s license or passport for whoever will sign the agreement.
- A voided business checkConfirms the account the funds land in and the account remittance is drawn from.
- Proof of the entityEIN letter, articles of organization or the equivalent formation filing.
What we never ask for
- Business or personal tax returns.
- A business plan, forecast or pitch deck.
- Audited or accountant-prepared financial statements.
- Collateral, appraisals or a lien on your equipment and property.
Honest comparison
How this sits against a bank loan and an online term loan
We are not the cheapest money in the market and the table says so. What we are is the fastest, and the only one on this list that moves with your sales.
| Bank loan | Online term loan | Cash advance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to funding | Four to eight weeks | Two to seven days | 24 to 48 hours after signing |
| What the decision turns on | Credit, collateral, filed financials and time in business | Credit score first, revenue second | Deposit size and consistency first, credit reviewed against a 500 floor |
| Payment structure | The same amount every month, on a set date | A set amount weekly or monthly, on a set date | A share of each day’s settlements, with no date attached |
| A slow month | The payment is due in full regardless | The payment is due in full regardless | Less is collected, and the term simply runs longer |
| Paperwork | Tax returns, financials, projections, collateral schedules | Application plus several months of statements | Four months of statements, ID, a voided check and the entity document |
| Collateral | Usually pledged, often including personal assets | Sometimes pledged | None pledged — the receivable is what changes hands |
| Cost | The cheapest capital of the three | In the middle | The most expensive of the three, and we are not going to pretend otherwise |
You are paying a premium for speed, for a decision that reads cash flow rather than credit, and for a collection that eases off when trading does — and if a bank will approve you in the time you have, the bank is the better deal.
Straight answer
When this is the right tool — and when it is not
When an advance is the right tool
- Inventory or materials you will convert into sales inside the term of the advance.
- A repair or replacement that is currently costing you revenue every day it waits.
- A supplier discount, bulk buy or short-notice contract worth more than the cost of the money.
- Payroll, rent and fixed costs carried through a seasonal dip you can see coming and see ending.
When it is not, and we will say so
- A capital project that pays back over three or five years. This money is priced and structured for months, and stretching it over that horizon is an expensive mistake.
- A business that collects on thirty-day invoices rather than daily settlements. Without daily card volume or daily deposits there is nothing for the remittance to come out of.
- A shortfall that is structural rather than temporary. An advance moves the date of the problem; it does not solve the problem, and it makes the arithmetic harder when it arrives.
- Any situation where a bank, an SBA lender or a credit union will genuinely approve you in the time you have. That capital costs a fraction of this and you should take it.
How it works
Four steps, with the clock on each one
- 110 minutes
Apply
A one-page application and four months of bank statements. You can do it from a phone, and nothing further is needed to get a decision.
- 2As little as 2 hours
Underwriting reads the file
A person, not a scoring model, reads the deposits, the daily balances and any existing obligations, then prices the advance against what the account can actually absorb.
- 3Same business day
The offer, in dollars
Amount advanced, factor rate, total to be delivered, remittance percentage and estimated term — all five on one page before you sign anything.
- 424 to 48 hours
Funds arrive
Signed agreement, a short verification call with your bank details confirmed, and the wire goes out. Remittance begins on the next business day.
Who we fund
Businesses that take money over a counter
An advance suits a business with steady daily volume. These six come to us most.
Restaurants and Food Service
High daily settlements, thin margins and equipment that fails at the worst possible hour. The most common file we see.
Construction and the Trades
Materials and crews are paid weeks before the draw arrives. An advance covers the gap without a lien on the yard.
Trucking and Logistics
Fuel, repairs and drivers do not wait for a broker to settle. Deposits are regular enough to underwrite even when the receivables are slow.
Print, Signage and Light Manufacturing
Job-shop work with real deposit history and machinery that has to keep running. Funded against the takings, not against the press.
Auto and Truck Repair
Parts on account, bays sitting idle when a lift is down, and card takings every single day. A natural fit for daily remittance.
Client reviews
What business owners say
★★★★★
Our fryer line and the hood above it both failed inside the same week, in the middle of football season. The advance was approved the morning after I sent statements and the money was in the account the next day. Collection came out of card sales, which for us is nearly everything we take.
Reyna CastellanosOwner, Castellanos CocinaCorpus Christi, Texas
★★★★★
I needed to buy a pallet load at a supplier price that expired on the Friday. Two hours to an approval and the wire landed Thursday. The discount on that order covered a meaningful part of what the advance cost me, which is the only reason I did it.
Terrence WhitlockOwner, Whitlock Hardware and SupplyDayton, Ohio
★★★★★
January and February are genuinely dead in this business and I have eleven people on payroll. Because the remittance is a percentage, those two months took a great deal less out of us than the spring did. I have had a fixed weekly payment before and the difference is not subtle.
Adaeze NwosuManaging Partner, Verdant Lawn and LandscapeSavannah, Georgia
Questions
The ones people actually ask
What is a merchant cash advance, and is it a loan?
It is not a loan, and the distinction is legal rather than cosmetic. A loan lends you principal and charges you for the time you hold it. An advance is a completed sale: you sell us a stated dollar amount of receivables you have not collected yet, we pay you less than that amount today, and we collect the stated amount out of your settlements as they arrive. There is no interest rate, no annual percentage rate and no maturity date, because none of those concepts apply to a purchase.
How does a factor rate work?
It is one multiplier, applied once. On $75,000 at a factor rate of 1.32 the total we collect is $99,000, and that $24,000 difference is the entire cost of the money. It does not compound, it does not accrue day by day, and it does not change if the term runs longer than expected. Everything you owe is knowable before you sign, in dollars.
Is there a minimum credit score, and how much does credit matter?
Yes, there is a floor: a personal credit score of 500 or above. Below that we cannot fund, and we would rather tell you in the first minute than after you have sent statements. Above it, credit is one input among several and rarely the one that decides the file. What decides it is the bank account — how much is coming in, how regularly, and what the balance looks like in the days between deposits. We do pull credit as part of underwriting, so nobody should be surprised by it.
What happens in a month when sales are down?
Less is collected, automatically, because the remittance is a percentage rather than a fixed figure. Nothing is missed, nothing is late, and the term simply extends until the purchased amount has been delivered. That is the structural advantage of an advance over a fixed monthly payment, and it is the main reason seasonal businesses use one. If trading falls off a cliff rather than dipping, call us — see the last question.
I already have an advance out. Can you still fund me?
Possibly, and we will look at it, but only with full disclosure. Tell us who holds the existing position, the balance and the daily remittance before we price anything. We will take a second position where the deposits genuinely support two, and in some cases the better answer is consolidating what is outstanding into a single position rather than stacking a third one on top. What we will not do is fund a file where an open advance was left off the application; that is where merchants get themselves into real trouble.