Revenue-based lending
Funding that flexes with your sales, repaid as a percentage of revenue rather than a fixed monthly instalment, and a broker relationship that outlasts any single provider.
General information only
Revenue-based lending (also called revenue-based financing) is capital repaid as a percentage of your ongoing revenue rather than a fixed instalment. Sell more in a given month and you repay more; sell less and the repayment eases with you. It’s become one of the most common ways fast-growing ecommerce brands fund inventory and marketing spend without giving up equity.
Two names dominate this space for Australian ecommerce sellers: Wayflyer and Shopify Capital. Both are legitimate products. Neither is the only option.
How does revenue-based financing work?
A lender advances a lump sum against your future revenue, then takes a fixed percentage of your sales (often pulled directly from your payment processor or store data) until the advance plus a pre-agreed fee is repaid. There’s no fixed term in the traditional sense: pay down faster in a strong month, slower in a quiet one.
The trade-off is cost. Because the lender is taking on real revenue risk rather than lending against a fixed repayment schedule, the effective cost is usually higher than a term loan or line of credit once your business has enough trading history to qualify for those instead.
Is revenue-based financing the same as a merchant cash advance?
Close, but not identical. Both provide capital in exchange for a share of future revenue, but merchant cash advances typically pull daily rather than monthly, carry higher effective costs, and offer fewer legal protections. Revenue-based financing, done properly, is usually more transparent about the fee structure upfront and repayments track monthly revenue rather than daily card swipes.
In practice the line blurs. Some lenders sell a merchant-cash-advance-style product under the revenue-based financing label. Read the actual repayment mechanics, not just what a provider calls it.
How does this compare to Wayflyer or Shopify Capital?
Wayflyer runs a real Sydney office and funds Australian ecommerce brands directly, and Shopify Capital sits built into the platform for eligible stores. Both are legitimate, well-used products. Going direct to either means one lender, one set of terms, and no one checking whether that facility is still the best fit as your business changes.
As a broker, we place revenue-based financing through Wayflyer, Shopify Capital-equivalent non-bank lenders, or any of the other providers on our panel. Just as important, we keep watching after the facility is in place. You’re not just paying for access to a product. You’re paying for someone to tell you when to move off it.
Wayflyer and Shopify Capital are two names in a much bigger panel. We place revenue-based financing through either, or the non-bank lenders you won’t find by searching, then move you off it once something cheaper fits.
What does revenue-based financing cost?
Instead of an interest rate, most revenue-based facilities are priced as a fixed fee on top of the advance (sometimes called a factor rate), repaid through an agreed percentage of your revenue until the advance plus the fee is cleared.
A fixed fee behaves nothing like an interest rate, and the difference runs the wrong way. Because the fee doesn’t accrue, the faster your revenue clears the advance, the higher the annual cost of the money. A strong quarter doesn’t save you anything. It just squeezes the same fee into a shorter period. That’s the opposite of every amortising facility on this site, where paying down early reduces what you pay.
The arithmetic is worked in full on our merchant cash advance comparison, which uses the same fixed-fee structure: a $50,000 advance carrying a $10,000 fee is a true cost of funds of about 65.7% a year if it clears in six months, falling to about 23.9% over eighteen months. Identical fee, wildly different cost, decided entirely by your trading speed.
For scale, the RBA business lending series for July 2026 puts new small business variable loans at 7.07% p.a. and new fixed at 8.11%. Revenue-based pricing sits well above that, and the gap is what you’re paying for speed, no security and a decision made on store data rather than financials. That can be entirely worth it. It’s only a bad deal if nobody converted the fee for you first.
Which gives you a practical question to ask any provider, including the two best-known providers, who publish nothing: what is the total amount repayable, and over what expected term? Those two numbers are all you need to work out the annual cost yourself, and a provider unwilling to give you both is telling you something.
Know this before you apply anywhere: the two best-known providers don’t publish what they charge. We checked both. Wayflyer’s own pricing page describes the structure (an advance, a fixed fee and a remittance plan) but states the fee is set per offer from their cost of capital and your store data, with no range given. Shopify Capital publishes no pricing on its Australian page at all.
| Route | How it is priced | Price published before you apply? | What it is assessed on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wayflyer, direct | Fixed fee on the advance, remitted as a share of revenue | No — set per offer | Connected store and ad-platform data |
| Shopify Capital, direct | Fixed borrowing cost, remitted as a share of daily sales | No — no pricing on the AU page | Your Shopify store history |
| Revenue-based lenders on our panel | Same structure, fixed fee on the advance | No, but you see several offers side by side | Store data plus bank statements |
| A term loan or line of credit instead | An interest rate, not a fee | Bank rates are published; non-bank rates are quoted | 12+ months trading history and clean statements |
None of that makes either provider a bad option, and risk-based pricing does vary by store. But it does mean you can’t compare before you apply, and a single offer with nothing to hold it against isn’t a comparison. That’s what a broker is for here: the same application, several offers, side by side.
The bigger saving usually isn’t a cheaper revenue-based facility at all. Once a business has 12 or more months of consistent trading and clean bank statements, a term loan or line of credit can often be priced well below what a revenue-based facility costs, because the lender is pricing a trading history rather than a forecast. Our revenue-based lending calculator, including the break-even sell-through formula, lets you model the real cost of an advance before you commit to one.
Provider pricing structures above were taken from each provider’s own published page and last checked on 19 September 2026. Ecommerce Loans is a finance broker, not a lender. Rates and figures shown are indicative only and subject to individual lender assessment.
The market revenue-based financing sits inside, still growing at a 13.3% compound rate.
Sourced data: ResearchAndMarkets
Is the broader alternative-lending market growing?
Yes. Australia’s alternative lending market (the broader category revenue-based financing sits in, alongside invoice trading, balance-sheet lending and other non-bank models) was valued at US$20.03 billion in 2025, and is forecast to grow at a 13.3% compound annual rate through the rest of the decade. That growth is being driven by SMEs wanting faster working-capital decisions than a bank credit committee typically delivers.
Faster and more available isn’t the same as cheaper, though. As this category has grown, so has the range in what different providers charge for what looks like the same product on the surface. That gap is where a broker earns their fee: knowing which provider is competitive for your revenue profile this quarter, not which one has the best-run ad campaign.
Source: Australia Alternative Lending Business Report 2026, ResearchAndMarkets.
Two things people get wrong about revenue-based lending
Wayflyer and Shopify Capital aren’t your only options
They’re the two most visible names, but not the only ones writing revenue-based facilities for Australian ecommerce sellers. A broker can place the same style of product through other non-bank lenders on our panel, sometimes on better terms than either of the household names.
Outgrowing your facility isn’t a dead end
Once you’ve got 12+ months of consistent trading history, the maths often flips in your favour. A term loan, line of credit or overdraft can undercut the ongoing cost of a revenue-based facility. Spotting that point is what a broker relationship is for.
When is revenue-based financing not the right call?
If your business already has 12+ months of clean, consistent trading history and margins that would qualify you for a term loan, line of credit or overdraft, revenue-based financing is often the more expensive way to fund the same need. We’ll say so, even if it means recommending a different product. It’s also not the right fit if your revenue is too new or too volatile for a lender to price the risk sensibly. In that case a shorter, smaller facility while you build trading history usually makes more sense.
If that’s where you are, tell us. Moving you off revenue-based lending is part of the job.
What are the alternatives to revenue-based financing?
If your trading history supports it, a term loan gives you fixed repayments and often a lower overall cost. A line of credit or business overdraft suits variable cash flow better than a one-off advance, without the revenue-share mechanic. Which one fits depends on your stage, your margins and what the funding is for. That’s the conversation we have before recommending anything.
Compare this against
Not sure revenue-based lending is the right shape?
Established enough to qualify for a cheaper, standard facility?
A line of credit is usually the more cost-effective option once you’ve got the trading history to support it.
See Lines of credit →Want fixed repayments instead of a share of revenue?
A term loan gives you a set schedule instead of repayments that move with what you take.
See Term loans →Funded more by card sales specifically than revenue broadly?
An MCA is priced directly against card takings rather than overall revenue.
See Merchant cash advances →How do you get revenue-based financing?
Tell us the basics (your monthly revenue, what the funding is for, and your ABN) and we take it to the panel without a formal application or a credit check at that stage. If you’re already with Wayflyer or Shopify Capital, say so. We’ll tell you whether a switch makes sense yet.
Want the numbers first? Try the revenue-based lending calculator →
Run an ecommerce business? See how finance changes as you scale →
New to working with a broker? See how a business loan broker works →
Give us the basics below and we’ll call you within the hour, or at the time you choose, then come back with the two or three offers worth your time.