Lavu, Parafin Partner to Offer Restaurants Cash Advances

Restaurant software and payments platform Lavu has launched a new solution that offers restaurants cash advances.

The new Lavu Capital offering is powered by embedded FinTech company Parafin and gives restaurants “easy access to fast capital,” according to a Wednesday (Sept. 28) press release.

“It’s frustrating to see how many restaurant owners don’t qualify for traditional loans despite their strong track records,” Lavu CEO Saleem Khatri said in the release. “In the same way we helped thousands of restaurants quickly transition to online ordering to survive the pandemic, we are launching Lavu Capital to help more restaurants keep their doors open during challenging times.”

With Lavu Capital, there’s no need for an application or credit check, and there is a one-time capital fee rather than interest, according to the release.

In practice, restaurants can view their pre-approved advance, select a capital amount and verify their bank account details in order to accept the cash advance, the release stated.

After accepting, the restaurant receives the money in one or two days, pays a one-time, flat capital fee based on the amount of accepted capital, and makes automated payments based on a percentage of sales on a set pay schedule, per the release.

Restaurants can use the cash advance for any business expense, according to the release.

“Our mission at Parafin is to grow small businesses by making it easier and faster to access financial services, starting with capital,” Parafin CEO Sahill Poddar said in the release. “We’re honored to work with platforms like Lavu that are heavily invested in the growth of the thousands of restaurants they work with, in order to deliver on this mission.”

This announcement comes about two months after Parafin, a FinTech launched in 2020 by veterans of Robinhood Markets, raised $60 million in a funding round.

Read more: SMB Fundraising FinTech Parafin Raises $60M

“As we started the company during the pandemic, we noticed small businesses weren’t getting the help they needed,” Parafin Co-Founder Vineet Goel said at the time. “We want to be the one-stop shop to enable these platforms to offer a variety of financial products.”