Revenue-based financing flexes your payments with your sales — but each funder offers one structure to one borrower profile. The Broker Shop works with the right funders offering revenue-based financing and matches the one that fits your revenue, then negotiates the factor rate.
Revenue-based financing (RBF) is one of the most flexible funding products: you get a lump sum and repay a percentage of revenue until a set total is paid — more in strong months, less in slow ones. But each RBF funder sets its own factor, holdback, and approval box. Here's how to find the one that fits your business.
Why one RBF funder rarely fits
Revenue-based funders differ in what they'll fund and how they price it. One wants $25K+/month. One only does card-heavy businesses. One prices at a 1.45 factor when another would do 1.25 for the same file. A single application means one structure at one price — with no way to know if it's competitive.
One funder = one structure
Their factor, their holdback, their box. If your revenue pattern or industry doesn't fit, you're declined or priced high — with no benchmark.
the right funders = your fit, your rate
We match your revenue profile to the RBF funders that fund it, surface competing factor rates, and negotiate the winner down. Funded in 24 hours.
Going to one funder vs. The Broker Shop
| What matters | Going to one funder | The Broker Shop |
|---|---|---|
| Factor rate | Their one quote | Bid down across the right funders |
| Repayment | Their fixed holdback | Matched to your cash-flow pattern |
| Eligible businesses | Their narrow box | Card-based, B2B, cash-heavy — the right funders |
| Who negotiates | No one | We do, across the right funders |
| Cost to you | Varies | $0 — the funder pays our fee |
Flexible payments, competitive factor
RBF's big advantage is flexibility — payments rise and fall with revenue. But the factor rate (your cost) varies widely between funders for the same file. One funder gives you one factor; matching you to the right funders lets you compare.
The Broker Shop reaches the right funders at once, matches your revenue profile to the right ones, and negotiates the factor rate down. One application, funded in 24 hours, free to you.
Get Competing RBF Offers →What actually determines your cost
For revenue-based financing, these factors decide your cost:
- Revenue volume and consistency — steadier, higher revenue earns a lower factor.
- How many funders compete — one factor quote with no benchmark vs. 50+ funders bidding on the same file.
- Credit score — 500+ qualifies; higher lowers the factor.
- Time in business — 6+ months; more history means better pricing.
- Whether anyone negotiates — a broker pushes the factor down.
See our revenue-based financing guide, or compare merchant cash advances.
What is the best revenue-based financing company?
There is no single best revenue-based financing company, because every funder underwrites a different revenue profile and prices it differently. The best one for your business is whichever funder returns the lowest total payback on your file — and the only way to find that is to put the same file in front of several at once.
As a broker we cannot rank funders as “best,” and honestly no one can: the same business gets materially different answers from different underwriting desks in the same week. What you can rank is the offer in front of you. Reduce every revenue-based offer to five numbers before you sign:
- Net cash you actually receive — after any origination or ACH fee is deducted at funding.
- Total dollars repaid — the advance amount multiplied by the factor rate. This is the real cost, not the factor itself.
- Holdback or fixed debit — a true percentage of daily revenue flexes with your sales; a fixed daily debit does not, and that difference shows up in a slow month.
- Estimated term — the same factor costs far more on an annualized basis over four months than over twelve.
- Early payoff terms — whether the funder discounts the remaining balance if you pay ahead, confirmed in writing before you sign.
An offer that looks expensive on the factor rate can be the cheaper deal once term and payoff treatment are included, and an offer that looks cheap can be the opposite. If you have not compared a factor rate against an APR before, start with how factor rates actually work.
What is revenue funding, and how does it work?
Revenue funding — usually called revenue-based financing — is a lump sum you repay as a set percentage of incoming revenue until an agreed total is paid off. There is no fixed monthly payment and no fixed end date: you pay more in strong months and less in slow ones, so the term stretches or shortens with your sales.
The cost is set with a factor rate rather than an interest rate, which means the total you owe is fixed the day you sign and does not accrue over time. Underwriting leans on bank deposits and card volume rather than collateral, so consistency of revenue matters more than the size of any single month. Most funders look for roughly six months in business and steady deposits, and credit is a pricing input rather than a gate.
That structure is a genuine advantage for seasonal and uneven businesses, and a genuine cost if you are borrowing to plug a permanent gap rather than to fund a specific return. Compare it against the other funding options before deciding the flexibility is worth the price.
Where to find affordable revenue-based financing
Affordable revenue-based financing comes from comparison, not from one provider. Most revenue-based funders are non-bank specialty firms and fintech platforms rather than banks, and each sets its own factor and holdback. Applying to several at once — directly or through a broker — is what creates a benchmark and gives any of them a reason to sharpen the number.
That benchmark matters more than owners expect. In the Federal Reserve Banks’ 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, 60% of firms that borrowed from online lenders said their actual borrowing costs were higher than expected, against 37% of borrowers at small banks. The same survey found 38% of firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance in the prior 12 months, and that the share of applicants going to online fintech lenders rose from 17% in the 2020 survey to 29% in the 2025 survey. More owners are using these products, and the cost is still surprising a majority of them.
Two things cut that surprise down. The first is insisting on the total dollar cost in writing before you sign, not the factor rate on its own. The second is knowing what your state obliges a funder to tell you — eleven states now have a commercial financing disclosure law in force, and they set out exactly which figures have to appear on an offer. Our state disclosure law guide covers what each one requires.
For judging whether a funder is reliable, the useful signals are procedural rather than reputational: does the offer state total payback in dollars, is the reconciliation clause written down so a slow month actually reduces your payment, is anyone asking you for a fee before funding, and does the funder object to you comparing offers? Free to apply, full disclosure and no pressure to sign the same day are the baseline. The Broker Shop is a broker, not a funder, and the funder pays our fee — so comparing costs you nothing, and checking your options won’t affect your credit score.
How to compare revenue-based financing rates side by side
Compare revenue-based financing on total dollars repaid, not on the factor rate. Line the offers up on five fields: the amount funded, the factor, the total payback in dollars, the revenue share percentage, and any fee deducted before the money lands. Two offers with an identical factor can cost materially different amounts once those last two fields differ.
The reason is that a factor rate has no time in it. A factor of 1.30 on $100,000 means $130,000 back whether that takes eight months or eighteen — so the offer that collects a larger share of your revenue finishes sooner and, in annualised terms, costs more. Say two funders both quote 1.30 on $100,000. One takes 8% of daily card revenue, the other 12%. On a business turning over $60,000 a month the first repays in roughly nine months and the second in roughly six, for the same $30,000 of cost. Priced as an annual rate, the faster offer is half again as expensive; priced as a total, they are identical. Neither number is wrong, which is exactly why you have to name which one you are comparing.
Three fields decide most of the rest. Origination and administrative fees deducted at funding reduce what you actually receive without reducing what you repay, so fold them into the total before comparing. Prepayment terms matter because a fixed factor usually means paying early saves you nothing unless the contract explicitly discounts it — ask, and get the answer in writing. And the reconciliation clause decides whether a slow month genuinely reduces your payment or merely defers it. Our guide to how factor rates work walks through the arithmetic, and the funding calculator converts a factor and a holdback into a daily figure you can hold against your bank statements.
Revenue-based financing for a business with variable or seasonal income
Revenue-based financing suits uneven income better than most products because repayment is a percentage of what you collect, so a slow month takes a proportionally smaller payment rather than the same fixed one. That is the structural advantage. The catch is that the total you owe does not shrink with the slow month — only the timing moves — so a long soft patch stretches the term instead of reducing the cost.
The distinction that matters when you are shopping is how the funder actually collects. A true percentage-of-revenue split adjusts by itself. A fixed daily or weekly debit does not: it is sized from an estimate of your average month and keeps withdrawing the same amount through a quiet January. Most funders using a fixed debit offer reconciliation, where you send bank statements and they refund or adjust the difference — but that is a contractual right you have to look for, not a default. Ask whether reconciliation is automatic or on request, how often it can be run, and what documentation triggers it.
For a genuinely seasonal business, size the advance against your weakest stretch rather than your annual average. A holdback that is comfortable in peak season is the same percentage in the off-season, when it is being taken out of far less money. Owners who get caught out have usually sized the deal against a good quarter. If your slow season is predictable, funding ahead of it — while your recent statements still reflect the strong months — also puts a stronger file in front of underwriting than applying once the dip is already visible.
Does using a broker for revenue-based loans cost you more?
Not usually, because in this market the funder normally pays the broker’s commission out of its own margin rather than adding it on top of your offer. What you should confirm is the specific deal in front of you: ask whether any fee is being charged to you, whether it is deducted from the funded amount, and see the total payback in dollars with everything included before you sign.
The comparison worth making is not broker versus no broker, it is one offer versus several. In the Federal Reserve Banks’ 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, the share of applicants seeking financing at online fintech lenders climbed from 17% in the 2020 survey to 29% in the 2025 survey — a fast-growing, largely non-bank market where terms are set funder by funder and there is no posted rate to check against. That is the market where having several offers on the table changes what any one of them is willing to do.
The Broker Shop is a broker, not a funder. We do not price your deal or hold the paper; we put your file in front of the funders among our 50+ lending partners whose guidelines your business actually meets, then bring the competing offers back for you to compare on the fields above. If you want the fee question answered in full, our guide to who pays the business loan broker fee covers how commissions are structured and what a legitimate one looks like. It is free to apply, and checking your options won’t affect your credit score.
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