Takeaway funding: finance for UK takeaways and fast food businesses

Updated September 2026

Takeaways are well suited to card-sales-based funding: revenue is daily, card-heavy, and visible to lenders through merchant statements — which means approval decisions rest on real trading rather than projections. Funding for a takeaway usually means one of four things: replacing equipment that died mid-service, a refit, expanding into delivery, or smoothing a seasonal dip.

The routes below are matched to the situations takeaways actually hit, along with what lenders look for. We work with UK limited companies, LLPs, sole traders and partnerships.

What can a takeaway use funding for?

Anything with a business purpose. In practice it is usually equipment (fryers, ovens, refrigeration — urgent, because a dead fryer stops trading), refits and extraction work, delivery expansion, or working capital across the quiet months.

Need	Route that usually fits	Why
Fryer, oven or fridge failed	Merchant cash advance or equipment funding	Speed — replacement cannot wait weeks
Refit or extraction upgrade	Term loan or refurbishment funding	Larger amount, repaid over the improvement’s life
Delivery platform expansion	Working capital	Short-term outlay before platform revenue builds
Seasonal dip (January–February)	Merchant cash advance	Repayments track card takings, so quiet weeks cost less

How do lenders assess a takeaway?

Lenders assess a takeaway on its card takings and bank statements (typically the last three to six months) plus time trading. Card-heavy revenue works in a takeaway’s favour because it is verifiable: a lender can see the daily pattern directly. Cash-heavy takeaways get less credit for revenue lenders cannot see, which in practice means smaller offers; growing card volume genuinely widens funding access.

Delivery-platform revenue (Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo) counts too, but lenders treat it distinctly from in-store card takings because platforms pay on their own settlement cycles. Statements showing both streams give the fullest picture.

How many lenders will actually look at a takeaway?

More than the sector's reputation suggests. 28 of our commercial mortgage lenders will lend against take-away premises, which is close to the 31 that cover leisure property generally (checked September 2026). Kitchen kit is broader still: 20 asset lenders fund restaurant and bar equipment and 15 will fund used machines, which is how most fryer and oven replacements actually get bought.

The small unsecured amounts a takeaway usually wants are the best-served part of the panel. At £10,000, 30 lenders have a product covering the amount across 65 products, over terms of 1 to 60 months; at £25,000 it is 36 lenders, with the median published rate floor falling from 21.3% to 19.2% as the amount rises (checked September 2026). Borrowing more is often proportionally cheaper, which is not the same as saying borrow more.

Two criteria decide most takeaway declines before pricing is ever discussed. 21 of the 55 unsecured lenders will look at a business trading under a year, and 39 do not require a director who owns a home (checked September 2026). A new shop with a renting director is not shut out, but the list it goes to is a specific one.

The three shapes a takeaway borrows in

Fit-out first. New extraction, a serving counter, tiling and the electrics for a bigger kitchen are spend that vanishes into the walls, so a lender funds it against the takings as an unsecured term loan. At £25,000, 36 lenders on our panel have a product covering the amount, and at £50,000 the count is 47, over terms of 1 to 120 months with a median published floor of 17% (checked September 2026). Where the counter and the display fridges are invoiced separately, 22 lenders publish appetite for shop fit-out as an asset.

Kit second, and this is the shape a takeaway uses most. Fryers, a pizza oven, refrigeration and an extraction canopy are all assets a funder can take back, so the panel is more forgiving here: 20 asset lenders fund restaurant and bar equipment, 15 will fund used machines, 25 defer the VAT and 14 accept business adverse credit (checked September 2026). A delivery van belongs in the same shape, and 32 lenders publish appetite for light commercial vehicles, which is a wider field than the kitchen kit gets.

Cash flow third. January and February are thin for most takeaways and the rent, the wages and the VAT quarter do not move, so the product built for the gap is a merchant cash advance repaid as a share of card takings. At £10,000 unsecured, 30 lenders have a product covering the amount over 1 to 60 months (checked September 2026). A shop that takes most of its money through a delivery app should say so up front, because an advance sized on the card terminal alone will be smaller than the business.

What the panel data does and does not count for a takeaway

Take-aways are a named sector on our platform's commercial property list, so the 28 figure is a real count of commercial mortgage lenders whose criteria include the premises, out of 45 in the category. It says nothing about the trade itself: a fish and chip shop on a lease is never underwritten on that list. The kitchen counts come from the asset-class list and the amount bands from unsecured product limits, and no field on the platform records whether a shop's revenue arrives by card, cash or aggregator. All counts date from the September 2026 pull of available products and change with each re-pull.

How many takeaways there are, and the rates change from April 2026

The ONS counted 45,355 VAT or PAYE registered enterprises under take-away food shops and mobile food stands in the UK at March 2025, up 1,345 on the 44,010 of March 2024 and above the 43,620 of 2023. That is a larger count than licensed restaurants (31,615) or cafes (28,170) on the same release, and 41,400 of the 45,355 employ fewer than 10 people (ONS ad hoc 3495, 24 June 2026). It is a trade of single-site owners, which is the profile the £10,000 to £25,000 bands above are built for.

Takeaways are named on the gov.uk list of qualifying uses for the new retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers in England. From 1 April 2026 a qualifying property with a rateable value under £51,000 pays 38.2p in the pound, 5p below the small business multiplier, in place of the 40% relief that applied in 2025/26 with its £110,000 cap per business (gov.uk guidance updated 30 March 2026, read 9 September 2026). Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own reliefs. The rates saving is small next to a fryer, but a lender reads a forecast line by line and an up-to-date one reads better.

What does takeaway funding cost?

Cost depends on product, amount, term and the business’s trading profile, so ranges quoted without seeing statements are guesses. A real quote with a total repayment figure is the number to work from; judge it against what the funding earns — a replacement fryer that restores full service pays for itself differently than a refit whose payback runs over years. Any quote that comes back through us states the total cost as one fixed number before you decide anything.

The panel behind this page

Through our broker network we place cases with a panel of 200+ UK lenders offering 1,800+ products, from high-street banks to specialist funds. Where the plan involves buying or refinancing the premises, 28 of our commercial mortgage lenders lend against take-aways (checked September 2026; panel composition changes over time). We check criteria first and approach only the lenders whose requirements you fit. The full roster, category by category, is published in our lender directory.

Frequently asked questions

Can a takeaway get funding with mostly cash revenue?

Yes, but expect smaller offers: lenders can only lend against revenue they can verify, which means bank deposits and card takings. A takeaway that moves more sales onto cards typically finds both approval odds and offer sizes improve within a few months, because the trading evidence improves.

How fast can a takeaway get equipment replaced through funding?

Merchant cash advances and equipment funding are the fast routes, and speed depends mostly on how quickly bank and card statements are supplied. If equipment failure has stopped part of your service, say so — timelines can be checked against the urgency before you commit to anything.

Does Just Eat or Uber Eats revenue count for funding applications?

Yes. Delivery platform payouts visible in bank statements count as revenue, though lenders treat them separately from in-store card takings because platforms settle on their own cycles. Providing both merchant statements and bank statements gives lenders the full revenue picture.

Can I get a business loan for a takeaway?

Yes. At £25,000 unsecured, 36 lenders on our panel have a product covering the amount, with published floors from 4.1% and a median floor of 19.2% (checked September 2026). 39 of the 55 unsecured lenders proceed without a homeowning director, so renting is a narrower field rather than a closed one.

Can I finance a delivery van for the takeaway?

On hire purchase or a lease, yes: 32 of our 38 asset finance lenders publish appetite for light commercial vehicles and 10 will fund a vehicle bought from a private seller rather than a dealer (checked September 2026). The van is the security, so the file is read less harshly than an unsecured request for the same sum.

What does takeaway equipment finance cover?

Fryers, ovens, refrigeration and extraction, new or used. 20 asset lenders fund restaurant and bar equipment, 15 take older machinery and 19 will lend against kit to a shop that made a loss in its last accounts (checked September 2026). Enquiring does not affect your credit score.

Is CapExpand FCA regulated?

CapExpand Ltd is not directly authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. CapExpand Ltd (FRN 1060885) is an Appointed Representative of White Rose Finance Group Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630772). That appointment means White Rose Finance Group Limited is responsible for our credit broking, and both firms appear on the Financial Services Register at register.fca.org.uk. We are a credit broker, not a lender.

Sources

Sector figures read on 9 September 2026. Panel counts were checked September 2026 of available products and describe the panel, not an offer.

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