What Parafin does

Parafin is a San Francisco-based embedded financial infrastructure company founded in 2020 that provides white-labeled financial products to platforms serving small businesses. The company operates an API-first platform offering three core products: Capital (working capital loans with revenue-based repayment), Spend Card (a business credit card program with FDIC-insured cash accounts issued through Column N.A. pursuant to a Visa license and powered by Marqeta), and Pay Over Time (B2B installment credit). Loans are issued by Celtic Bank, and the platform integrates via single API, no-code, low-code, or custom options into marketplaces, vertical SaaS applications, and payment processors.

The company's core technology centers on an AI-powered underwriting engine trained on over 1 billion cross-industry data points from 2 million small businesses. The proprietary "ParaFormer" transformer architecture serves hundreds of millions of daily underwriting forecasts, evaluating revenue history, cash flows, debt load, and unstructured data without relying on personal credit scores. Parafin has built an internal agentic LLM workflow platform using OpenAI's agents SDK and Braintrust for evaluations and observability, which delivered a 2.8x improvement in adverse media recall while reducing manual review hours. Money movement is supported by a double-entry ledger system integrated with Modern Treasury, achieving exact reconciliation and an approximately 80% reduction in external API calls via balance caching.

Parafin generates revenue through transaction-based fees: a share of capital fees on conversions, interchange on Spend Card transactions, and fixed financing or statement fees (11-16%) on Pay Over Time plans. The go-to-market is exclusively embedded—platforms integrate Parafin's products and offer them under their own brand to their small business merchants, with Parafin earning a share of capital fees. Distribution occurs through 20+ named platform partners including DoorDash, Amazon, Walmart, Gusto, TikTok Shop, Mindbody, Xplor, Jobber, 360 Payments, Fullsteam, NMI, and Worldpay, alongside a reseller channel via NMI's 4,000-partner network. As of 2025, Parafin reported surpassing $100 million in annualized revenue run rate (142% growth in 2024), with 50,000+ businesses funded and $35B+ in credit offers extended across the U.S. and Canada.

Name

Parafin

Legal name

Parafin, Inc.

Website

https://parafin.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Parafin is an embedded financial infrastructure company providing white-labeled Capital, Spend Card, and Pay Over Time products to platforms serving small businesses in the U.S. and Canada, using AI underwriting trained on over 1 billion cross-industry data points.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Embedded Finance Infrastructure

NAICS

Mortgage and Nonmortgage Loan Brokers (522310), Activities Related to Credit Intermediation (5223), Nondepository Credit Intermediation (5222)

SIC

Loan Brokers (6163)

akta.pro primary industry

Embedded Lending & Credit (POS, Working Capital, Credit Lines) (FSAGALAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Underwriting Automation & Income/Employment Verification (FSAGAHAD), Pricing, Risk-Based Offer & Limit Management (FSAGAHAE)

Keywords

• Embedded finance infrastructure
• Small business lending
• Working capital loans
• B2B BNPL
• Embedded credit cards

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Partnership Fees (Capital): Parafin earns a share of the capital fee when a customer converts on a capital offer. Platforms add a new revenue stream without increasing operating costs. Fee is fixed and transparent, not interest-based.
2. Credit Card Revenue (Spend Card): Revenue from the Spend Card product includes interchange fees on card transactions, statement fees (11-16%) on pay-over-time balances, and potential cashback rewards funded by card spend. Cards are issued by Column N.A. via Visa license, powered by Marqeta.
3. Pay Over Time Revenue: Revenue from installment credit includes fixed financing fees built into payment plans. For 4-payment plans: $0 financing fee. For 8-payment plans: $50 fee on $5,000. For 12-payment plans: $300 fee on $5,000. Statement fees of 11-16% apply if full balance is not paid within grace period.
4. Embedded Lending Interest and Fees: Interest and fee income from working capital loans, merchant cash advances, and term loans. Capital loans charge one fixed fee over the term. Example: $10,000 capital at 13% daily repayment rate with 30-day minimum results in $1,080 capital fee.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Parafin provides an embedded finance infrastructure platform that enables marketplaces, vertical SaaS companies, payment processors, and other platforms to offer white-labeled Capital (working capital loans), Spend (business credit cards with FDIC-insured cash accounts), and Pay Over Time (B2B installment credit) products to their small business customers via single API integration. The platform handles underwriting, compliance, servicing, and customer support, while platforms retain brand ownership and earn revenue share on capital conversions. Loans are issued by Celtic Bank, Spend Cards by Column N.A. via Visa and Marqeta, and underwriting uses AI-powered models trained on data from 2 million+ small businesses.

Product overview

Parafin is a financial infrastructure company providing an integrated embedded financing platform with three core products: Capital (working capital loans with term and Flex options), Spend (business credit card with FDIC-insured cash accounts), and Pay Over Time (B2B BNPL installment credit). The platform uses AI-powered underwriting models trained on over 1 billion data points and provides white-labeled solutions that integrate into partner platforms via single API integration. The company operates a B2B model serving platforms (marketplaces, SaaS, payment processors) who offer financing to their small business customers. Loans are issued by Celtic Bank, banking services by Column N.A., and cards by Visa/Marqeta. Parafin has extended over $35 billion in offers to 50,000+ businesses across the U.S. and Canada.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Kajabi Capital: Embedded capital program launched in partnership with Kajabi for expert/creator economy platform users.
• NMI Business Capital
• Jobber Capital
• Payroll Bridge
• 360 Capital
• Fullsteam Capital

Products and services

• Capital Embedded working capital financing offering for platforms, providing small businesses with fast access to capital including term loans and revenue-based Flex financing with daily repayment tied to sales. Eligibility is based on sales history with no credit checks or collateral required.
• Spend Fully managed business credit card program with FDIC-insured cash accounts providing everyday credit and rewards for small businesses, with no annual fees or credit checks. Credit limits grow with business performance. Physical and virtual cards powered by Marqeta and Visa and issued by Column N.A.
• Pay Over Time B2B buy-now-pay-later installment credit product enabling businesses to split purchases into 4, 8, or 12 payments. Analyzes unstructured banking activity for underwriting and offers revolving credit for expenses like payroll, inventory, equipment, and advertising.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50,000+ businesses funded with $35B+ in offers extended
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability9 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

21 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• JobbercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 December 2025Expanded partnership to Canadian home service pros, building on successful U.S. deployment launched March 2025. Jobber Capital enables service pros to access funds directly within Jobber's platform for hiring, equipment, cash flow management, and taking on bigger contracts. Thousands of Canadian service pros now have access to integrated financing.
• KajabicoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 December 2025Launch of Kajabi Capital, an embedded capital program granting Kajabi's network of entrepreneurs access to fast and flexible financing. Addresses the 81% of small business owners who reported difficulty accessing affordable capital. Eligible US-based Kajabi experts can access capital offers directly from the Capital page within their Kajabi dashboard.
• NMIcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 9 December 2025Partnership to offer flexible capital to over one million merchants through NMI's extensive reseller network of 4,000 channel partners including ISOs, PayFacs, and SaaS platforms. NMI Business Capital powered by Parafin integrates into NMI's modular payment acceptance platform, enabling partners to deliver personalized capital offers to merchants.
• FullsteamcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 October 2025Partnership exceeded $125 million in capital financing since September 2022. Supports Fullsteam business units across salons, party rentals, limo services, and breweries. 70% of funded merchants applied for repeat financing. Plans to expand to Canada and Puerto Rico with new products.
• GustocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 September 2025Launched Payroll Bridge, a payroll line of credit designed specifically for small businesses. Powered by Parafin's Pay Over Time product, enabling businesses to access credit right at the moment they need it to ensure teams get paid even when cash flow is tight. Won Tearsheet award for best embedded finance product for SMBs.
• 360 PaymentscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-product financing program surpassed $100 million in total originations, funding 3,000+ cash advances and loans to 900+ small businesses in automotive, medical, and dental industries. Includes Capital (MCA, Term, and Flex loans) and Spend Card products. 85% of eligible businesses took additional capital.
• Xplor TechnologiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEmbedded financing partnership funding 500+ small businesses across fitness, field services, and dry cleaning industries with $16M+ in growth capital. Xplor Capital enables businesses to access funds directly within Xplor platforms (Mariana Tek, Service Autopilot, FieldEdge, Spot). Parafin provides turnkey integration with white-labeled customer support.
• accept.blueminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerGateway Capital program embedded within accept.blue's payment gateway, providing merchants quick access to funding for growth, unexpected expenses, and opportunities. Pre-approved offers based on sales history without impacting credit scores.
• DoorDashcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDoorDash Capital program providing restaurant partners quick and easy access to capital through Parafin's embedded financing infrastructure. Chief Revenue Officer Tom Pickett noted this addresses key area where restaurants have asked for support.
• AmazoncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEmbedded financing offerings for Amazon sellers through Parafin's platform, enabling access to working capital tied to sales performance.
• WalmartcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEmbedded financing offerings for Walmart sellers and merchants through Parafin's platform, part of Parafin's network of major marketplace partners.
• MindbodycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMindbody Capital embedded financing program for fitness and wellness merchants. Director of Business Development Alice Shen noted Parafin's creative and smart solution enables merchants to access funding on the same platform they use to run their everyday business.
• TikTok ShopcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEmbedded financing offerings for TikTok Shop sellers, part of Parafin's expanding network of marketplace and platform partners.
• WorldpaycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEmbedded financing offerings for merchants through Worldpay's payment processing platform.
• Column N.A.coreTechnology or IntegrationBanking infrastructure partner providing FDIC-insured cash accounts and issuing Spend Cards pursuant to Visa license. Column N.A. is Member FDIC. Parafin is a financial technology company, not a bank.
• VisacoreTechnology or IntegrationCard network license for Spend Cards issued by Column N.A. Enables Parafin's Spend Card product to operate on Visa's payment network.
• MarqetacoreTechnology or IntegrationCard issuing platform powering Parafin's Spend Cards. Provides the underlying card issuance infrastructure for physical and virtual business credit cards.
• Modern TreasurycoreTechnology or IntegrationPayment operations and ledger infrastructure platform. Parafin built a double-entry ledger system integrated with Modern Treasury for accurate reconciliation, automatic status sync, and reliable money movement. Modern Treasury links ledger transactions to underlying payment objects.
• Celtic BankcoreTechnology or IntegrationIssuing bank for Parafin's capital loans and lines of credit. Loans and lines of credit are issued by Celtic Bank.
• OpenAIcoreTechnology or IntegrationAI infrastructure provider for Parafin's agentic LLM platform. OpenAI's agents SDK is used to interact with foundational models for workflows including adverse media checks and transaction classification.
• BraintrustcoreTechnology or IntegrationEvaluation and observability platform for Parafin's LLM applications. Used for offline experiments and continuous evaluation of agentic workflows.

Scale indicators21 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Stripe Capital: Stripe's embedded working-capital program for merchants using Stripe payments. Like Parafin, it uses platform payment-flow data to underwrite SMBs and offers a single-API integration. Stripe Capital is the most direct competitive analogue to Parafin's Capital product, with the advantage of payment data from Stripe's merchant base.
• Shopify Capital: Shopify's embedded cash-advance product for Shopify merchants, integrated directly into the Shopify admin. Operates on the same embedded-by-platform model as Parafin and is one of the marquee examples of the category Parafin competes in, particularly for e-commerce SMB lending through vertical SaaS/marketplace platforms.
• Square Capital (Block): Block's embedded lending arm extends working capital and loans to Square sellers using POS and payment data. Strongly comparable to Parafin's Capital offering - both serve SMBs through platform-observed sales data, offer revenue-tied repayment, and target very small businesses underserved by banks.

Emerging players

• Pipe: Pipe provides revenue-based financing and embedded capital tools, primarily for SaaS and online SMBs. Comparable to Parafin in monetizing recurring cash flows via platform integrations, though Pipe has historically emphasized buying/selling of revenue receivables rather than direct small-business underwriting through SaaS verticals.
• Fundbox: Fundbox provides working-capital advances and lines of credit to SMBs, increasingly distributed through embedded partnerships with accounting and SaaS platforms. Targets the same underserved-SMB segment as Parafin but with a more traditional direct + partner-channel mix rather than white-label-only distribution.
• BlueVine: BlueVine offers SMB working capital, lines of credit, and checking accounts, and has built embedded/offering partnerships (e.g., through Wave). A relevant peer for Parafin's Capital product given overlapping SMB small-business-lending focus, with a more direct-to-merchant acquisition motion historically.
• OnDeck (Envestnet / Hannon Armstrong): OnDeck is a long-standing online small-business lender offering term loans and lines of credit, including white-labeled products distributed through partner platforms (e.g., Amex Business Blueprint). Comparable to Parafin's Capital/Pay-Over-Time on SMB underwriting and embedded partner channels.

Others

• Lendio: Lendio operates an SMB loan marketplace and brokering platform aggregating multiple lenders. Adjacent to Parafin in that it is part of the SMB financing distribution stack but does not white-label or underwrite capital itself - a closer match to Parafin's "loan-aggregation" role than to its underwriting infrastructure.

Broad incumbents

• Brex: Brex provides corporate cards, spend management, and embedded banking/credit products to SMBs and enterprises. While Brex is broader and direct-to-customer, its recent push toward embedded banking and SMB spend cards overlaps materially with Parafin's Spend Card product.
• Ramp: Ramp provides business credit cards, spend management, and embedded finance offerings, increasingly to small and mid-market businesses. Comparable to Parafin on the spend/card side, although Ramp's primary GTM is direct (signed employers) rather than white-label/embedded into partner platforms.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks10 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/parafinhq
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/buildparafin

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds9 records

Investors17 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Parafin