At a Glance
Rating Breakdown
Performance Overview
Scores out of 5, based on our editorial analysis
About Toast Capital
Toast Capital is the financing arm of Toast Inc. (NYSE: TOST), the restaurant POS platform running in 100,000+ locations across the country. Over $1 billion deployed since 2019, exclusively to restaurants on the Toast system. The structural advantage is dead simple: Toast sees every transaction your restaurant processes in real time. Daily sales, ticket averages, lunch versus dinner splits, table turns, seasonal patterns. No outside MCA provider has that data quality. The experience feels nothing like applying for an MCA. Eligible restaurants see a pre-approved offer in their Toast dashboard -- amount, flat fee (5-16%), total repayment. No application. No bank statements. No phone call with an underwriter. Click to accept. Funding in 1-2 business days. Repayment is a percentage of daily sales through Toast. Slow Monday at $2,000? Small payment. Busy Saturday at $8,000? Bigger payment. Cash flow stays proportional. The obvious limitation: if your restaurant runs Square, Clover, Lightspeed, or anything that is not Toast, this product does not exist for you. Period. The $300K cap limits usefulness for major renovations or multi-location expansions. And while 5-16% flat fees are among the lowest in the industry, high-volume restaurants can repay in 2-3 months, at which point a 10% flat fee annualizes to roughly 40-60% APR. Still competitive, but higher than the flat fee initially suggests.
Key Features
Fully Integrated with Toast POS
The financing lives inside the Toast platform you already use. Open your dashboard, check for an offer. No separate website, no new vendor relationship.
Ultra-Low Flat Fees
Flat fees of 5-16%. On a $100K advance at 8%, you repay $108K total. A traditional MCA at 1.25 factor rate charges $125K for the same money. That is $17K in savings.
Daily Sales Percentage Repayment
A fixed percentage of daily gross sales gets deducted through Toast. Busy Saturday generates a bigger payment. Dead Tuesday generates a smaller one. Cash flow stays proportional.
No Application Needed
Toast already has your transaction data. If you qualify, an offer appears in the dashboard. No forms, no bank statements, no underwriter to call.
Restaurant-Specific Underwriting
Toast evaluates covers, ticket averages, daypart performance, and menu mix -- the numbers that actually predict a restaurant's ability to repay. Your personal credit score is not the primary factor.
How It Works
Check Your Dashboard
Log into Toast and go to the Capital section. If you have an offer, it is already there with amount and terms calculated from your sales data.
Review Transparent Terms
The offer shows advance amount, flat fee, total repayment, and daily percentage. No fine print to decode. The numbers are the numbers.
Accept in Minutes
Click to accept. No paperwork, no bank statements, no follow-up calls. Acceptance takes less time than running a credit card.
Funds & Auto-Repayment
Money lands in your account within 1-2 business days. Repayment starts automatically as a percentage of daily Toast sales.
What They Do
- Merchant Cash Advance
- Revenue-Based Financing
- Restaurant Working Capital
Debt Types They Take On
- Merchant Cash Advance
- Revenue-Based Financing
- Split Funding
Fee & Cost Structure
Regulatory & Trust
Review Summary
Notable Case Studies
Pizzeria Kitchen Renovation and Throughput Increase
Family-owned pizzeria processing $55K/month through Toast needed $80K for a complete kitchen renovation including a Marsal deck oven, expanded prep line, and updated hood system. A traditional MCA broker quoted 1.28 factor rate ($102,400 total). The SBA 7(a) option would take 60-90 days.
Fast-Casual Catering Program Launch
Fast-casual restaurant doing $38K/month on Toast wanted to launch a corporate catering program but needed $40K for catering equipment, branded packaging, and a used delivery van. The owner had a 590 credit score after pandemic-era hardship and had been declined by two direct MCA lenders.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Flat fees of 5-16% produce effective APRs of 15-50%, making Toast Capital one of the cheapest MCA-style products in the industry by a significant margin
- Zero-friction embedded experience — pre-approved offers appear in your Toast dashboard with no application, no document uploads, and acceptance in minutes
- Underwriting based on actual POS transaction data (covers, ticket averages, daypart mix) is far more accurate than bank statement review and does not weight personal credit scores
- Publicly traded parent company (NYSE: TOST) provides institutional stability, regulatory oversight, and a long-term commitment to the restaurant ecosystem
- Percentage-of-daily-sales repayment means a slow Tuesday costs you proportionally less than a busy Saturday — genuine cash flow alignment that fixed ACH debits cannot provide
Cons
- Exclusively available to Toast POS customers — restaurants on Square, Clover, Lightspeed, Revel, or any other system are completely locked out regardless of financial qualifications
- Maximum advance of $300K is insufficient for major build-outs, multi-location expansions, or real estate acquisitions that larger restaurant groups require
- High-volume restaurants can repay the advance in 2-3 months, at which point a 10% flat fee annualizes to roughly 40-60% APR — still competitive, but higher than the flat fee initially suggests
- No ability to negotiate terms — Toast Capital offers are algorithmically generated and presented as take-it-or-leave-it, with no relationship manager to customize structuring
User Reviews (13)
no-application feature is truly revolutionary
Got funded quickly. Good rate.
second advance with improved terms
First advance: $25K at 10% flat fee. Paid off in 5 months. Second: $40K at 8% flat fee. Toast improved my terms because of clean repayment and growing sales volume. The renewal was as easy as the first — offer appeared in dashboard, clicked accept, funded in 2 days. Terms actually improve over time for loyal Toast Capital customers.
no personal guarantee is a massive advantage
Toast Capital does not require a personal guarantee. My personal assets are completely protected. If my bakery goes under, Toast can't come after my house or savings. They underwrite based on my Toast transaction history and collect only through Toast sales. $25K at 10% flat fee. For any restaurant owner worried about PG risk, Toast Capital removes that fear entirely. Ask for Robert if you can.
works for food trucks on Toast but advance ceiling is limited
My food truck runs Toast Go mobile. Toast Capital gave me $10K at 9% flat fee. Good for what it is but the advance ceiling was low — Toast won't let me take more than about 10-15% of my annual Toast volume. For a food truck doing $180K/year, the max was around $18K. Fine for small needs but won't cover a truck replacement or major expansion.
if you're on Toast POS this is the easiest funding ever
The offer appeared in my Toast dashboard. No application. No bank statements. No phone calls. Toast already has 2 years of my transaction data. They calculated my advance amount, showed me the flat fee, and I clicked "accept." $50K at 9% flat fee. $54,500 total. Repayment is automatic through my Toast sales — a fixed percentage of every transaction. The entire process from seeing the offer to having cash took 3 days.
my coffee shop got funded through Toast in 48 hours
The offer appeared in my Toast back office dashboard. $15K at 7% flat fee. $16,050 total. Clicked accept, funds deposited in 48 hours. Repayment runs through my daily Toast card processing at 8% of sales. My coffee shop runs entirely on Toast so the integration is perfect. The simplicity is unmatched — no other financing product goes from zero to funded with zero paperwork.
repayment through Toast sales is completely invisible
Every time someone pays at my bar, Toast Capital takes their cut before the money hits my bank account. I don't see a separate deduction, I don't make a separate payment. The repayment is embedded in my daily Toast processing. $40K at 8% flat fee. 10% of daily Toast sales goes to repayment. On a $5,000 sales day, $500 goes. On a $1,200 day, $120 goes. Seamless.
the restaurant-only focus means they understand our business
Toast Capital ONLY works with restaurants on the Toast POS platform. That specialization means they understand food cost margins, seasonal patterns, slow days vs busy days, and how restaurants actually work. My pizzeria got $35K at 8% flat fee. No generic questions about what industry I'm in — they already knew. The underwriting felt built specifically for restaurants because it was.
restaurant-only means no salon no retail no services
I use Toast POS at my salon. Applied to Toast Capital and was told it's exclusively for food service businesses. Even though I'm on the Toast platform and they have my transaction data, my salon doesn't qualify. The restaurant-only restriction seems arbitrary when they already have the data. Frustrating exclusion.
flat fee looks cheap until you calculate effective APR
Toast Capital charges 10% flat fee on my $40K advance. $44K total. Sounds reasonable. But revenue-share repayment meant my advance paid off in 4 months. Effective APR? About 60%. If it took 12 months, effective APR drops to roughly 20%. The faster you repay, the higher the effective cost. This is counterintuitive and Toast doesn't spell it out. Know the math before celebrating the low flat fee.
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Important Merchant Cash Advance Disclaimers
- A merchant cash advance is not a loan. It is a purchase of future receivables at a discount. Factor rates, not APRs, are used to express the cost of capital. Effective APRs on merchant cash advances can range from 40% to over 350% depending on the term and factor rate.
- Repayment is typically collected daily or weekly via automatic ACH debits or a percentage of credit card sales. This means your repayment amount fluctuates with revenue but withdrawals occur every business day, which can strain cash flow during slow periods.
- Most MCA agreements require a personal guarantee from the business owner. In the event of default, the MCA provider may pursue the owner's personal assets, including bank accounts and property.
- MCA providers commonly file UCC-1 liens against your business assets. This lien may prevent you from obtaining additional financing until the advance is fully repaid and the lien is released.
- Merchant cash advances are not regulated by federal lending laws such as the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). State regulations vary widely, and some states have limited consumer protections for MCA products.
- Stacking multiple merchant cash advances (taking a second advance before the first is repaid) significantly increases the risk of default and can lead to aggressive collection actions including confessions of judgment in some jurisdictions.
- Zogby does not provide merchant cash advances or business financing. We are an independent comparison service. We do not fund advances, process applications, or guarantee approval on your behalf.
This page is informational, not financial or legal advice. Talk to a qualified professional before making any big money decisions.
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We make money from some companies on this page. That doesn't change our rankings -- the editorial team scores every product independently, and the business side has no say in what we recommend.