How revenue-based finance works: costs, examples and fit

With revenue-based finance, the provider advances cash based on your company’s historical revenue and expected future sales. In return, you agree a repayment share, for example a percentage of monthly revenue, until the advance and a fixed fee are repaid.

There is usually no interest rate. Its return comes from the fee. Because repayments track revenue, the provider is taking a view on the strength and consistency of your sales, not only on your assets or your balance sheet.

How RBF differs from a merchant cash advance

The two are closely related, and some providers use the terms loosely. The main difference is where repayments come from: a merchant cash advanceA form of finance where a provider advances a lump sum in return for a fixed percentage of the company's future card takings until an agreed total is repaid. takes a share of card takings, while RBF can take a share of total revenue, including online sales and bank receipts. Our comparison of revenue-based finance vs merchant cash advance sets out the differences in cost, eligibility and repayment in detail.

365 Finance, for example, describes a separate revenue advance where payments are taken from total monthly turnover, including cash and invoices, alongside its card-only merchant cash advance.

The Irish market is small but growing. Examples of providers publishing terms for Irish businesses include:

• 365 Finance, which entered the Irish market as its first EU expansion, offering revenue-based working capitalThe money a business has available to fund day-to-day operations, calculated as current assets, such as cash, stock and debtors, minus current liabilities, such as suppliers and short-term debt. finance from €10,000 to €250,000, with repayments tied to revenue and no fixed term.
• Wayflyer, headquartered in Dublin, which funds e-commerce, retail, software and services businesses. Its site shows an example of a $100,000 advance with a $7,200 fee, repaid by fixed amounts or a percentage of sales, and says it does not take personal guaranteesA legally binding promise by a director or other individual to repay a company's debt if the company cannot..
• YouLend, which provides revenue-linked funding through payment and e-commerce platform partners, including Square sellers in Ireland.

Terms change often and every offer depends on the provider’s own assessment. The details above are taken from the providers’ own pages as checked on 21 October 2026.

Most providers charge a single fixed fee, agreed upfront and added to the advance. 365 Finance, for instance, describes one all-inclusive cost that does not rise if repayment takes longer. The fee is often expressed as a percentage of the advance or as a factor rateA pricing method used mainly for merchant cash advances and some short-term finance, expressed as a multiplier such as 1.2 rather than an interest rate..

The key point: the fee in euro is fixed, but the time you take to repay is not. The faster your revenue grows, the sooner you repay and the higher the effective annual cost. If revenue slows, you repay over a longer period and the annualised cost falls, although you stay tied to the provider for longer.

Illustrative example: e-commerce funding for an online retailer

• Monthly repayment at current revenue: 10% of €90,000 = €9,000.
• Time to repay €108,000: about 12 months.
• Rough annualised equivalent: about 14% to 15%.
• If a strong Christmas season lifts revenue and the advance is repaid in eight months, the €8,000 fee stays the same, but the annualised equivalent rises to roughly 23%.

Use our working capital calculator to estimate how much funding your trading cycle needs, and the factor rate calculator to see how a fixed fee compares with interest over different periods.

Because repayment depends on future sales, providers focus on the quality of your revenue. Expect them to review:

• Trading historyHow long a company has been actively trading, and the record of that trading shown in its filed accounts, bank statements and tax returns.: often at least six months, and sometimes longer for larger amounts.
• Revenue level and consistency: monthly sales, growth trend and seasonality, usually through open bankingA system, set up under EU payment services rules, that lets a business share its bank account data securely with authorised third parties, with its consent., payment platform data or bank statements.
• Gross margin: whether your company can afford to give up a share of revenue without running short of cash.
• Marketing and stock spend, especially for e-commerce, as the provider wants to see how funding turns into sales.
• Existing debts and other revenue-linked advances already in place.
• Filed accounts with the CRO, a tax clearance certificateConfirmation from Revenue that a company's tax affairs are in order. and director ID.

Often, yes, as long as the seasonality is predictable. Think of a garden centre that takes most of its revenue between March and July, an online gift retailer that peaks in November and December, or a tourism-linked business on the Wild Atlantic Way. With a fixed-instalment loan, the repayment is the same in February as in August. With RBF, the repayment shrinks when revenue does.

The timing of the drawdown matters, though. If your company takes the advance just before its busiest months, it will repay a large share during the peak, and the effective annual cost will be high. If it takes the advance at the start of a quiet period to build stock, repayments will be light at first and the cost spread over a longer time. Model both scenarios with your accountant before you sign.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Comparing the fee percentage with a loan’s interest rate as if they were the same thing.
• Taking a second revenue-linked advance before the first is repaid, so two providers share the same revenue.
• Forgetting that VATA tax charged on most goods and services supplied in Ireland, collected by VAT-registered businesses and paid to Revenue. is usually included in gross sales, so the share taken can be larger than it looks against net revenue.
• Using RBF to fund a long-term asset that will take years to pay for itself.

Advantages

• Repayments flex with revenue, which can protect cash flow in quieter months.
• Usually no security over property or equipment, and some providers say they do not ask for personal guarantees.
• Decisions can be quick where providers connect directly to your sales data. Some say they can decide within 24 hours of a complete application; this is not guaranteed.

Disadvantages

• The effective cost can be high if revenue grows quickly and you repay early.
• Paying early may not save you money, because the fee is usually fixed.
• Giving up a share of every euro of revenue can squeeze companies with thin margins.
• Amounts are tied to current revenue, so RBF rarely funds large, long-term spending such as premises or major machinery.

• Term loan: fixed repayments and often a lower total cost for profitable, established companies. See unsecured business loans.
• Stock financeFunding used to buy stock or inventory, where the lender pays suppliers or advances against stock held and the company repays as goods are sold.: pays suppliers for inventory, then you repay over an agreed period. Useful for importers and online retailers. See stock finance.
• Invoice financeAn umbrella term for funding secured on a company's unpaid invoices, so cash comes in before customers pay.: releases cash from unpaid B2B invoices, which RBF does not specifically use. See invoice finance.
• SBCIA State-owned body that makes low-cost funding and loan guarantees available to Irish SMEs, farmers and fishers through participating banks and non-bank finance providers. Growth and Sustainability Loan Scheme: longer-term State-backed loans through participating banks, for growth projects rather than day-to-day working capital. See our SBCI loan scheme guide.

1. Get the total repayable in euro, and confirm there are no other fees.
2. Confirm exactly which revenue is included: card, online, bank receipts or all of these.
3. Check how often repayments are taken and how they are calculated in a month with refunds or chargebacks.
4. Ask whether there is a minimum payment or a final date for full repayment.
5. Ask whether a personal guarantee or any security is required.
6. Model a quiet quarter and a strong quarter to see the effect on cash flow and annualised cost.
7. Ask whether the provider searches or reports to the Central Credit Register and whether it is regulated by the Central Bank for this product.

It depends on the provider and how the agreement is structured. Some revenue-linked products are written as loans by regulated lenders, while others are structured as a purchase of future receivables. That affects whether protections such as the Central Bank’s SME Lending Regulations apply. The Consumer Protection Code already covered companies with turnover up to €3 million that deal with regulated providers; from 24 March 2026 the limit rose to €5 million. Ask the provider for its regulatory status in writing.

On credit checks, the Central Credit Register does not give a credit score. Lenders that search the Central Credit Register leave a record of the enquiry, and loans of €500 or more are reported. Not every non-bank provider reports to the CCR, and some say they use only a soft search for an initial quote.

Revenue-based finance is one of the products our lender panel can help with. Tell us your company’s monthly revenue, how you take payment and what the funding is for, and we can tell you which lenders on our panel may consider your company; we do not give financial advice. Any offer will set out the total cost clearly. Welcome Finance is a commercial finance broker, not a lender, and is not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. We work only with companies registered in Ireland (LTD, DAC, PLC or ULC), we are paid commission by lenders and do not charge your company a fee. We never ask for payment upfront.

To compare a fixed-fee offer with a loan, use our factor rate calculator or convert a rate per 30 days with the rate converter.