Franchise funding
Ovens, coolers, lifts and POS packages: match the payment to the asset, and the soft costs to the cash.
✓ Merchant Fund Express starts with a soft credit pull. Terms depend on your business's revenue and history.
Updated October 21, 2026 · Merchant Fund Express
Verdict: finance the brand-standard machine itself with equipment financing, so a vendor quote and the equipment's useful life set the structure; use working capital for everything around it (install, smallwares, payroll while the unit runs short, the lost sales week). Merchant Fund Express offers both to existing franchise owners, and splitting one project across the two usually keeps the combined payment lighter than funding it all as working capital.
Franchise units buy equipment the franchisor specifies: a particular oven, a walk-in, a lift, a POS package. That equipment has a vendor quote and a useful life measured in years, which is exactly what equipment financing is built around. Working capital fits costs that do not leave an asset behind: labor, installation, freight, training hours and the cash dip while the unit is down.
Generic mechanics: equipment financing and MCA vs equipment financing. Final terms depend on the business's revenue and history.
| Equipment financing | Working capital | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | The equipment itself | Operating costs around it |
| What sets the size | Vendor quote | Deposits and existing obligations |
| What sets the length | Useful life of the equipment | The offer's fixed schedule |
| Main document | Vendor quote for the specified model | About 3 months of bank statements |
| Covers install and freight | Only if on the quote | Yes |
| Covers payroll during downtime | No | Yes |
| Published minimums | None separately published | 6+ months, FICO 600+, $60K revenue (Tier 2) |
| Range | Quote-driven | $25,000 to $5,000,000 |
Emergencies have their own guides: franchise refrigeration funding and franchise POS and tech upgrades.
Choose equipment financing when:
Choose working capital when:
Hypothetical: a pizza unit depositing $85,000 a month loses its conveyor oven. The approved-vendor quote is $68,000. Install and venting $6,000, smallwares $4,000 and a payroll cushion for the reduced-menu week $15,000 bring soft costs to $25,000. Project total: $93,000.
| Line | Split | All working capital |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment financing on $68,000 | $1,550 a month (illustrative) | n/a |
| Working capital | $25,000, $31,250 repaid over 40 weeks = $781.25 a week | $93,000, $116,250 repaid over 60 weeks = $1,937.50 a week |
| Working capital monthly equivalent | $781.25 x 52 / 12 = about $3,385 | $1,937.50 x 52 / 12 = about $8,396 |
| Combined monthly payment | $1,550 + $3,385 = $4,935 | $8,396 |
| Burden on $85,000 deposits | about 5.8% | about 9.9% |
Splitting puts the long-lived oven on a schedule that matches its life and keeps the short schedule for the short-lived costs. The split also leaves about $3,461 a month ($8,396 - $4,935) in the unit for royalty and ad fund debits, payroll and the next slow week, which matters most in the month the oven is down and sales dip.
Figures in this example are illustrations of the arithmetic, not an offer, quote or approval. Real terms depend on the file and the funder.
More in franchise funding documents.
A full refresh mixes equipment, finishes and labor; read franchise remodeling funding. If you are opening another unit, Merchant Fund Express reviews the current units' deposits; see funding a second franchise location. All products are on the franchise funding hub.
If it is on the vendor quote, it is part of the request. Costs outside the quote fit working capital.
No separate minimums are published; the review reads the quote, the useful life and the unit's deposits.
Yes. Existing positions are counted when the payment is sized.
Send the approved vendor's quote for that model. Brand-standard equipment is exactly what equipment financing is for.
Both get a same-day decision on a complete file. Splitting usually lowers the combined payment, as the example shows.
Merchant Fund Express reviews your location's revenue, deposits and existing payments. Same-day decision on a complete file; funding often the next business day. About five minutes to apply.
