7 min read
Growth capital repaid in covers, not payments
How dining-credit funding works, what it really costs, and the kind of room it suits.
Funding options, 5 min read
If Toast has already offered you money, read the factor before you compare it to anything.
Toast Capital is fast, modest and underwritten from data Toast already has. For a quick-service or small-ticket restaurant it's usually the right tool. For a $2M dinner house it's small and the holdback hits every sale.
At a glance
as of November 2026
- Typical size
- $1,000 to $300,000; 90 to 360 day repayment targets
- Speed
- Often same day once offered
- Guarantee or collateral
- Lien on receivables; check your offer for a personal guarantee
- Cost structure
- One fixed fee, no interest; a UCC lien on receivables
- Best for
- Toast restaurants needing fast, modest capital
How it works
Toast sees your sales every day, so it can make an offer without an application. You accept, the money lands, and a fixed percentage of each day's card sales is held back until the principal and the fee are repaid. If sales slow, repayment slows, with a target date of 90 to 360 days.
The fee is fixed and quoted up front. What it doesn't say is that the holdback comes out of every card sale, including from the regulars who were coming anyway, and that repaying in 90 days instead of 360 makes the same fee far more expensive per year. Read the factor and the target term together.
Toast offers this only to its own merchants, so we can't refer you and earn nothing if you take it. We explain it because for the right restaurant it's the simplest money there is.
The trade
For
- ✓Fast and simple; no separate underwriting
- ✓Fixed fee known up front
- ✓Repayment flexes with sales
Against
- ✕Capped at $300K
- ✕Holdback hits all card sales, regulars included
- ✕Short repayment window raises the effective rate
How we're paid
We don't earn anything if you choose Toast Capital. It's on this site because for the right restaurant it's the better answer, and we'd rather you take it than take inKind for the wrong reasons.
More funding options, explained
All of them
Find out which of these we'd place for your room.
Covers Advisory is an independent capital advisory, not a lender. We do not make funding decisions, and we are compensated by funding partners when a placement we arrange closes. Our recommendation is the same whether or not a partner pays us. How we're paid.