For more information or assistance with setup please contact customersuccess@nmi.com.
Overview
Many merchants face cash flow challenges yet have limited access to streamlined funding solutions.
Merchant Central’s embedded lending feature, powered by Parafin, addresses this by enabling merchant users to access business funding directly within their processing dashboard.
Using anonymized merchant sales data, personalized funding offers are automatically generated and delivered by email and within Merchant Central. Merchants receive exclusive, pre-approved offers without any additional credit application or manual effort required from your team.
Business Capital supports multiple loan products with different repayment structures. Depending on the product selected for the merchant, repayment may be tied to a percentage of daily sales or follow a fixed payment schedule. If approved, merchants receive funds quickly—typically within 24–48 hours.
Merchant benefits
- Pre-approved offers based on sales history.
- No additional credit checks or paperwork required.
- Flexible repayment structures based on the loan product offered, including sales-based or fixed scheduled payments.
- One fixed fee with no interest or late fees.
- Fast funding, typically within 24–48 hours if approved.
- Self-serve experience—merchants can review offers, accept funding, and track repayment in their portal.
Neither ISOs nor Merchant Central are involved in loan approval, and financial risk is assumed by Parafin as the lending provider. ISOs earn a commission for each approved loan, creating an incentive to promote the feature to their merchant base.
By offering embedded lending through Business Capital, partner platforms can monetize lending, increase loyalty, and unlock a recurring revenue stream without handling underwriting, funding, or servicing.
Your merchants are ready to grow—Business Capital makes it simple to offer lending options that create new revenue opportunities and strengthen merchant relationships.
ℹ️ All loans are issued by Celtic Bank. All loans and offers are subject to credit approval, identity verification, and periodic review and may change without notice. Bank transfers are subject to review.
Prerequisites
Ask Support to enable the BUSINESS_CAPITAL feature flag on your site.
Once enabled, add the Business Capital permission to your user class.
With the permission in place, you’ll now have access to the Business Capital settings page. To open it, navigate to Manage → Business Capital.
When the page is opened for the first time, you’ll see a welcome screen with information on the Business Capital service.
To review and accept the service terms and conditions, click Get Started with Business Capital and follow the on-screen instructions.
ℹ️You can also access the Business Capital settings page by clicking Learn More on the welcome popup shown when the feature is first enabled.
Once you accept the terms and activate the service, Business Capital will begin evaluating merchants and preparing pre-approved offers in the background.
Opting out is possible but not recommended, as it limits your ability to generate revenue from lending.
Business Capital Dashboard
With the feature enabled and activated, the Business Capital dashboard is automatically added to your system and is accessible from the main navigation menu.
The dashboard is your central hub for tracking how Business Capital performs across your portfolio. From here, you can:
- Monitor offer acceptance metrics.
- Track loan volume and total funded amounts.
- Review commission earnings for every funded loan.
- Understand merchant engagement with funding offers.
Loan Types
Parafin determines which Business Capital product best fits each merchant and presents only that product to them. The offer/loan's Product Type is shown in the Business Capital report so you can distinguish them.
- Flex Loan — Repayment is tied to merchant sales. A percentage of daily sales is debited until the loan is repaid.
- Term Loan — A fixed payment amount is debited on a periodic schedule until the loan is repaid. This structure provides merchants with predictable payments.
- Starter Loan — Designed for newer merchants with at least one transaction but less than six months of processing history. Rather than starting with a pre-approved loan amount, the merchant links their business bank account through Plaid so Parafin can review additional revenue information and determine whether to make an offer. Repayment follows a Term Loan-style fixed payment structure.
Quick Status Filters
Use the quick status banner to filter merchants by Offers Extended, Accepted, In Repayment, or Completed. Selecting a filter automatically updates the totals and table.
Advanced Filters
For additional filtering options, click Filter Offers at the top of the page.
Then select your desired filters and click Apply.
Search and Export
Use the report table’s search box to quickly locate a merchant. Click Export to download merchant data as CSV or Excel.
The Merchant Experience
Business Capital is designed to be fast and easy for merchants:
- Merchants receive pre-approved funding offers automatically by email and in their portal.
- They can review offer details, accept an offer, and—if approved—receive funding in 1–2 business days.
- Their portal dashboard lets them track repayments, view remaining balances, and manage their account.
All offers are branded with your business name to build trust and strengthen merchant relationships, while underwriting, funding, and servicing are handled by the lending provider.
Real Time Offer Boosting
Offer boosting gives eligible businesses a way to qualify for a larger capital offer by linking their business bank account.
When a business connects its bank account through Plaid, Parafin can review more of the business’s total revenue, not only sales processed through your platform. This gives Parafin a fuller view of the business’s activity and may result in an offer that better matches the business’s working capital needs.
How offer boosting works
A business may see the option to link its business bank account while viewing a capital offer. After the account is connected, Parafin reviews the additional revenue information in real time.
Within a few minutes, the business may receive an updated offer with new terms.
From the business’s perspective, the process is simple:
- The business views its current capital offer.
- The business chooses to link its business bank account.
- The business securely connects the account through Plaid.
- Parafin reviews the additional revenue information.
- The business sees whether it qualifies for a boosted offer.
If the business qualifies, the updated offer replaces the original one.
☝️When a boosted offer is created, the original offer is closed and replaced with a new offer that includes the updated amount and terms. The business should review the new offer carefully before accepting.
ℹ️Not every business will qualify for a boosted offer. Businesses that are unable to link their business bank account through Plaid will not be eligible for offer boosting.
Business Capital Settings
To configure Business Capital settings, click Business Capital Settings at the top of the dashboard page (or navigate to Manage → Business Capital).
On the settings page, you can configure your banking information and manage merchant eligibility for lending services.
Banking Information and Commissions
In the Banking Information section, enter your deposit account details to set up commission payouts.
Once your banking details are added and saved, you’ll earn commission passively on the capital fees from every funded loan driven by your merchants.
Merchant Eligibility
Below this section, you can view and manage the list of merchants eligible for Business Capital.
All merchants are enabled to receive offers by default. However, only merchants with 3+ months of sales activity are eligible for Business Capital funding. You can exclude any merchants who aren’t a good fit.
Use the View dropdown to toggle between Included Merchants, Excluded Merchants, and All Merchants. You can also use the search box to quickly locate specific merchants.
To adjust eligibility for an individual merchant, click Included next to their name to switch them to Excluded, and vice versa. You can also use Bulk Exclude Merchants to filter and exclude multiple merchants at once.
After making changes, click Save at the bottom of the page. Once saved, eligible merchants will begin receiving offers from the lending provider.
Previewing Merchant Communications
You can preview the email merchants will receive by clicking Preview Merchant Email in the top-right corner.
There are three email templates, one for each loan type: Flex Loan, Term Loan, and Starter Loan. Parafin determines which loan product is presented to the merchant, and Merchant Central uses the corresponding email template for that product.
The email features your branding to build trust and encourage engagement, while the lending provider manages the offer, funding, and repayment process end-to-end.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When do the emails start going out to merchants? The emails start going out when you activate the Business Capital service by accepting the terms and conditions and clicking the Launch button.
- Who sends the lending offer emails? The emails are sent automatically from Merchant Central using your email account and branding.
- How often do emails go out to merchants? Emails are sent once every two weeks, and only one email is sent per offer.
- Can I edit the outgoing email template? No, the email template cannot be modified.
- Can I include an individual merchant on the Business Capital settings page if they were excluded via the bulk exclude filters? No. In this case, the bulk exclude rules take priority, and the merchant cannot be included.
Videos
Watch this webinar to learn how the Business Capital embedded lending program can help you offer financing to your customers.