Frequently asked
Business funding questions, answered in full
Organized by category. Each answer is written to stand on its own without surrounding context.
01
Eligibility
- What are the minimum requirements to qualify for business funding?
- Baseline requirements across CanFund products are at least six months in business, a business bank account, and $15,000 in monthly revenue. Individual products set higher floors: working capital and lines of credit generally require twelve months of operating history, and term loans require twenty-four. Credit score minimums range from 500 to 650 depending on product.
- Can I qualify with bad personal credit?
- Often, yes. For revenue-based products such as merchant cash advances, cash flow behavior carries more weight than the personal credit score, and approvals occur down to a 500 FICO. Credit weight increases for longer-duration products, where a low score narrows both the approved amount and the available term.
- Do you fund startups or businesses under six months old?
- Businesses under six months old generally do not qualify for revenue-based products because there is insufficient deposit history to model. Invoice factoring is the common exception: it underwrites primarily against your customers' credit, so a three-month-old company invoicing creditworthy B2B customers can be eligible.
- Which industries do you not fund?
- A restricted list applies and includes categories with regulatory or chargeback profiles outside our risk appetite — the full restricted industry list is available on request. Most retail, service, healthcare, transportation, construction, and e-commerce businesses are eligible.
02
Application Process
- How long does the application take?
- The application takes about seven minutes to complete. Once your bank statements are uploaded, the current average time to a decision is 4m 12s. Standard files need three months of business bank statements; larger requests may also require tax returns or financial statements.
- What documents do I need to apply?
- Three months of business bank statements, downloaded as PDFs from your bank. That is it for most applications. Requests above $250,000, or files where the statements are incomplete, may require two years of business tax returns and a current profit and loss statement.
- Does applying affect my credit score?
- No. The initial review uses a soft credit inquiry, which does not affect your score. A hard inquiry occurs only at final approval and only with your explicit consent.
- How quickly can I receive funds after approval?
- Approved and signed files typically fund within 1 business day. Same-day funding is available for files completed before the afternoon cutoff of 2:00 PM ET. Larger structured term loans close in two to five business days.
03
Rates & Terms
- How much does business funding from CanFund cost?
- Cost depends on product and risk profile. Merchant cash advances carry factor rates from 1.15 to 1.49; working capital loans run 9% to 36% APR; equipment financing runs 7% to 24% APR; lines of credit cost 1.5% to 4% monthly on drawn balances. Every offer states the total dollar cost of capital before you sign.
- Are there origination or hidden fees?
- An origination fee of 0% to 3% may apply depending on product and is disclosed inside the offer, not added afterward. There are no application fees, no maintenance fees on undrawn credit lines, and no prepayment penalties on interest-bearing products.
- Is there a penalty for paying off early?
- Not on interest-bearing products. Working capital loans, term loans, and equipment financing use simple interest, so early payoff reduces total interest paid. Merchant cash advances carry a fixed factor rate, so early delivery does not reduce the total amount owed, though it also incurs no penalty.
- How much funding can my business qualify for?
- Approved amounts typically fall between 80% and 150% of average monthly revenue for revenue-based products, and are constrained by a debt service coverage floor for fixed-payment products. Existing financing positions reduce available capacity.
04
Technology & Underwriting
- How does CanFund's underwriting technology work?
- The underwriting system parses the business bank statements you upload, alongside any card processing or accounting summaries you add, then models forward cash flow rather than scoring a static snapshot. It evaluates deposit consistency, negative-day frequency, existing debit obligations, revenue trend, and industry-level loss behavior. Because statement parsing is automated, the analysis that historically took days of manual statement spreading completes in minutes.
- Why is uploading statements faster here than at a bank?
- A bank re-keys your statements by hand and queues them behind an analyst. We parse the same PDFs automatically into transaction-level, daily-resolution data the moment they land, so analysis starts immediately. Nothing to request, nothing to chase — you send three files once and underwriting begins.
- Is my banking data secure?
- We never ask for your online banking credentials and never connect to your account, so nothing we hold can move money. Uploaded statements are encrypted in transit and at rest, accessible only to the underwriters on your file, and used for credit decisioning only — full security documentation is available on request.
- Does a human ever review my application?
- Yes. Automated underwriting handles the routine majority of files, while applications near the decision boundary, unusually large requests, and files with contradictory data route to a credit analyst. Automation is used to concentrate human review where judgment actually changes the outcome.
05
Repayment
- How is repayment collected?
- Repayment is collected by ACH debit from your business bank account on the schedule stated in your agreement — daily, weekly, or monthly depending on product. Merchant cash advances may alternatively be collected as a split of card processing settlements.
- What happens if I miss a payment?
- A failed debit triggers a notification and a retry on the next business day. Repeated failures move the account to the servicing team for a repayment review — the NSF fee schedule is stated in your agreement. Contacting servicing before a known shortfall generally results in a workable adjustment.
- Can I change my payment schedule?
- Schedule modifications are evaluated case by case by the servicing team. Merchant cash advances include a contractual reconciliation right that adjusts collections to the agreed percentage of actual settled revenue when sales decline.
- Can I take additional funding before my current position is repaid?
- Renewals are commonly available once a defined percentage of the current position has been delivered — typically 50%. Stacking additional positions from other funders while a CanFund position is open may constitute a default under your agreement.
Product-specific questions are answered on each product page, and the mechanics are explained in the resource guides.
Still deciding?
The desk answers structure and eligibility questions before you apply, with no credit inquiry.