Funding for your situation
The real cost of adding a delivery van, what funders look at, and a worked example using illustrative figures.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
A new delivery van is easier to justify than a new location, and easier to underfund. A corporate client wants weekly lunches, and the food cost and payroll hit weeks before the first invoice is paid. The purchase, the people and the first weeks of ramp-up all land at once.
Merchant Fund Express is a funding marketplace: you apply once, and the file is matched to the structure that fits it. The sections below show what this situation usually costs, how a funder reads it, and what to prepare.
Deposits arrive in lumps: event deposits, balance payments and corporate invoices on net terms. A reviewer sees that pattern in the statements before reading a word of the application.
Equipment is part of the picture. A failure such as a van refrigeration unit or a transport cart replacements can run $4,700 to $4,700 and interrupt revenue while it is down.
The documents that usually matter most for a catering company are the booking contract or signed proposal and a van or equipment quote, alongside the bank statements.
Wedding season, corporate holidays and graduation weekends decide the year. For a catering company, that rhythm decides when a funding request reads best and how it should be repaid.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Refrigerated van | $38,000 |
| Chafing, warming and transport equipment | $8,500 |
| Event rentals inventory | $7,000 |
| Extra staff for the first big booking | $6,500 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $6,000 |
| Funding need for one more delivery van | $66,000 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $86,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $3,308. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $105,000 (about $24,231 a week), that is roughly 14% of weekly deposits. Your own offer states the real repayment amount in dollars; run your numbers on the factor rate calculator before you accept anything.
Source: worksheet by Merchant Fund Express. Illustrative only: these figures are not an offer, and real amounts depend on your file and the funder.
A fixed purchase with a quote you can put in front of a funder.
A fixed purchase with a quote you can put in front of a funder.
Bought ahead of the first sale and sitting as cash until it turns.
People are paid on a schedule that does not wait for new revenue to ramp.
These are the same factors described on revenue and deposit requirements and time in business. Merchant Fund Express walks you through how your own file reads before you apply.
A complete file is what makes a same-day decision possible. If something is missing, tell us and we will work around it.
Merchant Fund Express gives a same-day decision on a complete file, and funding is typically the next business day after signing. The quote or bill of sale for the delivery van is the document that usually moves things along.
It can be either. If the purchase is a single asset with a quote, equipment financing may fit; if you also need payroll and supplies for the ramp-up, working capital covers the whole package.
Often yes. A used purchase can shorten the payback, and a quote or invoice from the seller is what the file needs.
The minimum FICO is 500, and better credit means better products and terms. See credit score requirements for how the tiers work.
Merchant Fund Express gives a same-day decision on a complete file. Applying takes a few minutes and will not affect your credit score.
