Funding for your situation
The real cost of adding a food truck, what funders look at, and a worked example using illustrative figures.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
A new food truck is easier to justify than a new location, and easier to underfund. Weekends are sold out by noon, and the only way to say yes to the brewery contract is a second truck. 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.
Equipment is part of the picture. A failure such as a generator replacement or a axle and brake work can run $5,200 to $5,200 and interrupt revenue while it is down.
The documents that usually matter most for a food truck are a truck or trailer quote or bill of sale and permit and commissary paperwork, alongside the bank statements.
Festival season, brewery nights and lunch crowds rise and fall with weather and permit calendars. For a food truck, that rhythm decides when a funding request reads best and how it should be repaid.
What it looks like on the ground: the generator quit at a festival, and every missed event is a day of revenue gone.
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.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Used truck or trailer | $45,000 |
| Kitchen equipment and generator | $14,000 |
| Wrap, signage and POS | $5,500 |
| Commissary deposit and permits | $3,500 |
| Opening inventory | $3,000 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $7,000 |
| Funding need for one more food truck | $78,000 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $101,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $3,885. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $125,000 (about $28,846 a week), that is roughly 13% 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.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
Due at signing, so it comes out of cash before the space earns anything.
Bought ahead of the first sale and sitting as cash until it turns.
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 food truck 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.
