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.
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, and going direct to either means you’re locked into one lender’s terms with nobody checking whether it’s still the right facility for where your business actually is.
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 genuine 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 market 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 genuine, 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, and just as importantly, we keep watching after the facility is in place. The reality is that as businesses scale, the products we can offer as a replacement for an existing Wayflyer or Shopify Capital facility are often materially stronger, because a lender assessing 12+ months of consistent trading history and clean bank statements can price a term loan or line of credit well below what a revenue-based facility costs. You’re not just paying for access to a product, you’re paying for the strategy that tells 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 via the agreed percentage of revenue. There’s no single number that applies across providers; it depends on the lender, your revenue consistency and margins, and how quickly the advance is expected to be repaid. Our revenue-based lending calculator, including the break-even sell-through formula, lets you model the real cost before you commit.
Ecommerce Loans is a finance broker, not a lender. Rates and figures shown are indicative only and subject to individual lender assessment.
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. That transition point is exactly 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 product that isn’t this one. 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 either of those sounds like your situation, say so on the call. Redirecting you to the right product costs us nothing and saves you a facility that doesn’t fit.
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 genuinely variable cash flow better than a one-off advance, without the revenue-share mechanic. Which one actually fits depends on your stage, 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 actually 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, tell us that too, we’ll tell you honestly 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 Andrew will come back with the two or three offers actually worth your time, usually within a business day.