Ecommerce merchants have three dominant captive MCA options in 2026 — Amazon Lending, Stripe Capital, and Shopify Capital. Each prices distinctly based on platform data, payout structure, and merchant concentration risk.
Amazon Lending: largest captive ecommerce funder.
Amazon Lending originates the largest ecommerce MCA volume in 2026, with an estimated $4–6B annual run rate across US and international markets.
- Factor range: 1.10–1.20 typical, 1.08 floor for top-tier sellers.
- Term: 3–12 months.
- Advance size: $1K–$1M+ (largest in captive ecommerce).
- Repayment: Deducted from Amazon payouts every 14 days.
- Eligibility: Pre-qualified by invitation; sellers see offers in Seller Central.
- Speed: Same-day funding upon acceptance.
Amazon's underwriting advantage is full FBA inventory, sales velocity, return rate, and seller account health data — producing the most accurate risk model in ecommerce captive lending.
Stripe Capital: Stripe-integrated processing-based MCA.
Stripe Capital serves merchants using Stripe for payment processing — primarily SaaS, marketplaces, and D2C ecommerce.
- Factor range: 1.10–1.22 typical.
- Term: 6–18 months effective (no fixed term, repaid via 6–15% holdback of Stripe payments).
- Advance size: $5K–$2M (large for pure ecommerce; usually capped at 2–4x monthly Stripe volume).
- Repayment: Holdback percentage of every Stripe charge, applied at settlement.
- Eligibility: Pre-qualified via Stripe Dashboard offers.
- Speed: Same-business-day funding.
Stripe's advantage: real-time visibility into MRR, churn, ARPU, and transaction velocity for SaaS and subscription merchants. Pricing reflects Stripe's confidence in subscription revenue predictability.
Shopify Capital: Shopify-store-integrated MCA.
Shopify Capital serves merchants using Shopify for ecommerce storefront.
- Factor range: 1.10–1.20 typical.
- Term: 6–18 months effective.
- Advance size: $200–$2M (some merchants see larger offers).
- Repayment: Holdback percentage of every Shopify Payments transaction.
- Eligibility: Pre-qualified via Shopify admin offers.
- Speed: Same-day funding.
Shopify's advantage: full store data (traffic, conversion, AOV, repeat purchase rate, inventory) plus Shopify Payments processing data.
Side-by-side comparison on a $100K advance.
- Amazon Lending at 1.14 factor, 9-month term: $114K repaid, ~37% APR-equivalent.
- Stripe Capital at 1.16 factor, 12% holdback: $116K repaid over ~10 months, ~32% APR-equivalent.
- Shopify Capital at 1.15 factor, 11% holdback: $115K repaid over ~11 months, ~28% APR-equivalent.
- Generalist ecommerce MCA at 1.32 factor, 9-month term: $132K repaid, ~70% APR-equivalent.
The captive advantage is 25–35% on factor rate.
Why captives price lower.
- Processor-level collection — holdback applied to payouts before merchant receives funds, near-zero NSF risk.
- Full platform data — sales velocity, inventory, return rate, customer LTV, traffic.
- Account-level enforcement — captive can suspend account features on default, dramatic recovery leverage.
- Lower fraud risk — funder sees actual transactions, not just bank deposits.
These factors cut default rates 40–60% versus generalist ACH-debit MCA, justifying the pricing advantage.
Where generalist funders win.
- Multi-platform merchants. Sellers on Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Walmart, and own website need an MCA against aggregate revenue, not platform-specific.
- Cash-heavy ecommerce. Some niche merchants accept significant non-card payments (wire, ACH, BNPL) that captives don't see.
- Large advances above captive caps. Captives cap at $1–2M; larger sellers go to specialist ecommerce lenders (Clearco, Wayflyer, Settle, Uncapped).
- Distressed sellers. Captives decline merchants with account-health issues; generalists fund.
- Sellers needing equipment or non-inventory capital. Captives typically restrict use to platform-related expenses; generalists are unrestricted.
Specialist ecommerce funders (between captive and generalist).
- Clearco (formerly Clearbanc) — D2C ecommerce specialist, 1.18–1.28 factor.
- Wayflyer — D2C ecommerce, deep Shopify integration, 1.16–1.26.
- Settle — D2C ecommerce, inventory and AP financing, 1.12–1.22.
- Uncapped — D2C ecommerce, larger ticket, 1.14–1.24.
- Liberis — ecommerce + retail, 1.18–1.28.
These specialists fill the gap between captive limits and generalist pricing.
Captive-lock economics.
A merchant locked into Amazon Lending, Stripe Capital, or Shopify Capital faces:
- Platform dependency reinforcement — switching platforms breaks the captive's collection mechanism.
- Processing rate negotiation loss — captives know merchants can't easily leave.
- Account suspension leverage — captive can suspend selling features on default.
Industry estimates suggest captive-locked merchants pay 10–20 bps higher processing rates than free-to-switch peers, offsetting 20–30% of the captive MCA pricing advantage over advance life.
Renewal economics.
- Amazon Lending: Renewal at 50% paydown, factor often improves 0.02–0.04.
- Stripe Capital: Holdback-based, effectively continuous — no formal renewal.
- Shopify Capital: Renewal at 50% paydown, factor improvement modest.
Common confusions.
First, "captives are always cheaper." Usually true on factor, sometimes false on total cost of ownership when processing rate lock-in is included.
Second, "Stripe Capital has fixed term." False — it's holdback-based and repaid as transactions occur.
Third, "you can stack captive on captive." Some merchants take Amazon + Shopify simultaneously; UCC visibility tells the second funder about the first.
Fourth, "captive offers are always available." False — captives pre-qualify; not all merchants receive offers.
Takeaway. Amazon Lending, Stripe Capital, and Shopify Capital each offer 20–30% pricing advantage over generalist ecommerce MCA for merchants concentrated on their platforms. The right captive depends on platform mix; multi-platform sellers, distressed sellers, and large-ticket sellers ($2M+) often need specialist or generalist funders to fill the gap.
Related terms
- E-commerce MCA: Shopify and Stripe integration — E-commerce MCA integrates directly with Shopify, Stripe, Amazon, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce — pulling sales data via OAuth, sizing offers off platform GMV, and collecting via processor split or daily ACH.
- Ecommerce MCA: marketplace payout aging funder economics — Marketplace MCA funders pricing against Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and TikTok Shop payout cycles charge 1.14–1.24 factor with payout-aligned debits, vs generalist 1.28–1.40 — reflecting platform-specific 14–28 day payout aging and reserve hold patterns. Updated 2026-06-28.
- Ecommerce MCA: Amazon payout aging pattern — Amazon Seller Central pays sellers on a 14-day rolling cycle minus a 7-day disbursement reserve — creating a typical 17–24 day cash gap between order capture and bank deposit that distorts MCA underwriting on Plaid feeds. Updated 2026-06-28.
- Merchant cash advance (MCA) — A lump-sum advance against future revenue, repaid via fixed daily ACH or a percentage of card sales. Legally a sale of future receivables, not a loan.
AI agents: this term is available as raw markdown at /llms/glossary/ecommerce-mca-funder-amazon-stripe-shopify-economics.