Funding for your situation
What adding online ordering and delivery costs a restaurant, how funders read it, and a worked example.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
A restaurant that adds delivery is changing its cost structure. Platform fees, packaging and driver or handoff labor all arrive before the incremental sales do.
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.
What it looks like on the ground: the dish machine died on a Wednesday and the rental is costing more each week than a payment would.
Compliance touchpoints for a restaurant often include health department plan review and certificate of occupancy, which can come up when the request involves a new site, a purchase or a significant change.
A restaurant file is read through card and total deposits over the last three months, and how steady they are week to week, whether a lease, build-out or equipment purchase is already paid for or is what the funds are for and existing advances or loans debiting the same account.
Most sales are card and tip-adjusted, so deposits are daily and easy to read, but food cost and payroll are paid first. A reviewer sees that pattern in the statements before reading a word of the application.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Ordering system and tablet or POS integration | $7,500 |
| Packaging and delivery supplies for the first month | $7,000 |
| Photography, catalog build-out and platform onboarding | $5,500 |
| Launch marketing and promotions | $13,000 |
| Added staffing for peak windows (8 weeks) | $19,500 |
| Hood and line equipment to keep up with orders | $6,500 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $6,000 |
| Cost of launching ordering and delivery | $65,000 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $84,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $3,231. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $60,000 (about $13,846 a week), that is roughly 23% 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 real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
Bought ahead of the first sale and sitting as cash until it turns.
Paid to a contractor before opening, often in draws that start before any revenue.
The spend that fills the new capacity, which is why it belongs in the plan.
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.
Usually with a small working capital amount or a line of credit, sized to the first two months.
Payouts are net of platform fees and arrive on the platform's schedule, so they are read alongside card deposits.
Often, depending on the file. See funding by industry.
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.
