Funder Intel

Lending is the new lock-in.
Q1 2026 earnings were released recently from the four biggest platforms in merchant services, and the numbers tell the same story:

→ Shopify Capital originated $1.4B in MCAs and loans in one quarter (up 71% YoY)

→ Square Loans drove Block’s biggest profit beat of the year, $20B+ cumulative

→ PayPal crossed $30B in cumulative small business lending, but pulled back 26% on originations after delinquencies ticked up

→ Fiserv is scaling Clover Capital as a core merchant retention tool

These companies aren’t treating lending as a side business anymore. It’s the glue that keeps merchants locked into the ecosystem.

When a Shopify merchant takes a capital advance, repayment comes out of daily sales, automatically. That’s not a loan relationship. That’s an operating system.

For independent funders, ISOs, and brokers, the platforms have data advantages and zero acquisition cost you can’t match. But they don’t serve the whole market. The riskier, smaller, faster-turnaround deals are still yours. The question is what happens in the middle.