Open the next unit without betting the last one

A franchise carries costs a normal start-up never sees. Before you take a penny, you pay an upfront franchise fee, fund the fit-out and initial stock, and cover training and launch marketing, often weeks before your first customers arrive. Then comes the ramp: most units trade below break-even for the opening months while you build local awareness, so you are carrying staff and rent on thin takings. On top of that you pay the franchisor an ongoing royalty or management service fee, usually a percentage of turnover rather than profit, plus a marketing levy, so money leaves the till whether the unit is busy or quiet.

Capvant is a borrower-first funding marketplace, not a lender. We match franchise owners with a network of vetted funding partners who compete for your business, so you see options side by side instead of chasing one bank's franchise desk. We do not lend, set rates or make the credit decision ourselves. Comparing options is a soft search with no impact on your credit score; a hard check only happens if you accept an offer. Funding is for business purposes only and is built for UK limited companies, LLPs and plcs.

Most franchise networks have a rhythm, and it rarely matches when money goes out. A coffee or food unit may live or die on lunchtime and weekend trade, a fitness franchise sees a January surge then a spring lull, and retail concepts lean hard on the Christmas quarter. Service franchises such as cleaning, care or courier work tend to be steadier but still face quarter-end and holiday gaps. Whatever your sector, the royalty and marketing levy are usually charged as a percentage of turnover and fall due on the franchisor's schedule, not yours.

Funding lets you buy into a peak rather than scramble through it. A line of credit or working capital facility can cover the extra stock and seasonal staff you need before a busy quarter, then be repaid as the takings land. For card-heavy units, a Revenue Advance flexes with daily sales, so repayments ease off naturally in a quiet week. The aim is to keep royalty and levy payments current without starving the unit of stock or cover at exactly the moment demand picks up.

The most common trigger is simply getting started: covering the initial franchise fee, fit-out and stock for a first unit, plus enough working capital to trade through the months before break-even. Close behind is buying an existing unit on resale, where you are paying for a site that is already turning over and want to complete without tying up all of your own cash.

Established franchisees borrow for different reasons. Many networks require a refit or rebrand every few years, a real cost with no immediate uplift, and equipment such as ovens, refrigeration or vehicles eventually needs replacing. The biggest step is usually multi-unit expansion, taking on a second or third territory, where the funding effectively buys the next site while the first keeps trading. Spreading these costs over time protects the day-to-day cash the unit needs to run.