Liberis review: the embedded cash advance behind Worldpay, eBay and others

Liberis is an embedded finance company. It does not chase merchants directly so much as build funding into the platforms merchants already use, describing this on its own site as contextual funding co-created with partners and embedded in their ecosystems. The partners it names include Worldpay, Elavon, Clover, eBay, Nexi, Dojo, Vagaro, Deliveroo and Teya. If your card processor or marketplace has offered you a lump sum repaid from your sales, Liberis may well be the funder even though the offer carries someone else's name.

Its product range is listed as Starter Capital, Working Capital, Flex Capital and Pay with Liberis, but the core mechanic is the same across them. It is a business cash advance rather than a loan: the provider buys a slice of your future card and online takings at a discount, pays you a lump sum, and recovers an agreed total by taking a fixed percentage of each day's sales, commonly somewhere between 5 and 20 per cent. Cost is quoted as a factor rate, typically between 1.1 and 1.5 across the market, and advances written to limited companies for business purposes sit outside the Financial Conduct Authority's consumer credit rules.

Liberis funding works best where card and online sales make up most of the revenue, because that is what the repayment mechanism attaches to. Hospitality, retail, salons and marketplace sellers are the natural fit. So are seasonal traders, since a percentage based holdback shrinks in a quiet month in a way a fixed monthly loan payment does not.

It fits poorly in three cases. If you bill by invoice and take payment by bank transfer, there is little for the holdback to work against and invoice finance is usually the better tool. If the money is for something with a payback measured in years, a facility built to clear in months is the wrong shape. And if you are considering an advance to cover an existing advance, the answer is almost always no.

One point specific to the embedded model deserves attention. Because repayment is collected through your payment platform, an outstanding balance ties you to that platform. Ask what happens if you switch processor mid term, and get the answer in writing before you accept.

Liberis does not publish a standard rate card. Pricing is quoted per business, typically on a factor rate basis, and the figure you are shown will reflect your trading history and the platform making the offer. Its site does refer to an expectation that the business trades in a way that delivers a minimum monthly amount towards the balance, expressed as a proportion of the total owed, which matters more than it sounds: a percentage based advance sold as fully flexible may still carry a floor, and that floor is exactly what bites in a bad month.

The other feature to understand is that the total repayable is fixed at the outset. Repay a factor rate of 1.2 and you owe 1.2 times the advance whether it clears in four months or nine, so strong trading makes the effective cost higher, not lower, unless the agreement provides a rebate. Our guide to how factor rates work explains why this does not translate cleanly into an APR, and the cash advance calculator will give you the total repayable and a realistic repayment period for a given holdback.

The nearest equivalent is YouLend, which runs the same white label model and names an overlapping set of platform partners. Which of the two you are offered is usually decided by your payment provider rather than by you, so the practical comparison is between the specific offers, not the brands.

Liberis also sits behind the Worldpay business cash advance. Worldpay's own product page states that the product is provided by Liberis Ltd, and unlike Liberis it publishes concrete figures, including a funding range and eligibility criteria, which makes it a useful reference point for what a Liberis backed offer looks like in practice.

For a different approach, 365 Business Finance describes itself on its own site as a direct financial provider, so you deal with the funder rather than a platform. Our roundup of the best merchant cash advance providers in the UK sets the options side by side.

Before accepting anything, ask for the amount advanced, the total repayable, the holdback percentage, any minimum monthly repayment and any fee deducted before the funds reach you. Those five figures are enough to work out what the money genuinely costs and how long it will take to clear. Then test the holdback against your worst recent trading month rather than your best.

Check as well who the credit agreement is actually with, since in embedded arrangements the counterparty may be Liberis, a Liberis entity or the platform. Liberis sets out its own account of the model on its website. Terms, pricing and partner relationships in this market move frequently, so confirm the current detail with Liberis or the platform making the offer before you commit.