Funding for your situation
What a restaurant typically has to pay for first after a flood or fire, how a bridge fits around insurance, and a worked example.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
Recovery has stages: stabilise, rebuild and reopen. A restaurant that funds the first two quickly shortens the third. Most sales are card and tip-adjusted, so deposits are daily and easy to read, but food cost and payroll are paid first.
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.
Equipment is part of the picture. A failure such as a walk-in cooler compressor or a dishwasher replacement can run $6,500 to $7,800 and interrupt revenue while it is down.
The documents that usually matter most for a restaurant are the lease or letter of intent for the space and a contractor bid or equipment quote, alongside the bank statements.
Patio weather, holidays and local events move covers up and down by the week. For a restaurant, that rhythm decides when a funding request reads best and how it should be repaid.
What it looks like on the ground: the line is full on Friday and Saturday, but the second dining room has been dark since the last tenant left.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Cleanup and mitigation | $34,500 |
| Walk-in cooler compressor replaced | $13,000 |
| Leasehold build-out (first phase of rebuild) | $29,500 |
| Payroll and fixed costs while closed (6 weeks) | $52,000 |
| Reopening: health department plan review and restart costs | $14,000 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $14,500 |
| First-phase recovery cost | $157,500 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $205,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $7,885. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $175,000 (about $40,385 a week), that is roughly 20% 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.
A fixed purchase with a quote you can put in front of a funder.
Paid to a contractor before opening, often in draws that start before any revenue.
People are paid on a schedule that does not wait for new revenue to ramp.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
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.
Often yes. A short-term bridge is built around the expected payout. See working capital and line of credit; Merchant Fund Express reviews the file the same day it is complete.
They are what the review is built on, together with documentation of the event.
Then the plan is about temporary operations and rebuild timing. Tell us the situation; the file can be shaped around it.
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.
