March 25, 2025
Operating a restaurant is a demanding endeavor. From managing inventory and maintaining customer satisfaction to recruiting skilled staff, restaurant owners navigate numerous challenges on a daily basis. To address these needs, CAKE provides a restaurant point-of-sale (POS) system designed to streamline operations and ensure order accuracy. Built with the fast-paced restaurant environment in mind, CAKE’s robust integration of hardware and software empowers establishments to serve more customers, increase revenue, and focus on their core business operations.
However, CAKE recognized that even the best operational tools couldn't fully meet the financial needs of small businesses. To address this gap, CAKE partnered with Parafin to launch CAKE Capital, an embedded financing program. This initiative provides restaurants across the country with easy access to critical funding, enabling them to overcome financial hurdles and fuel business growth. The program’s success speaks for itself:
This case study explores how CAKE and Parafin teamed up to provide effective financial solutions.
For restaurant owners, unpredictable financial challenges are an inevitable part of business. Whether it’s a broken piece of equipment, rising supply costs, or payroll deadlines during slower weeks, unexpected financial demands are constant. Unfortunately, traditional funding options often aren’t suitable for these urgent needs. Bank loans require navigating lengthy processes and meeting strict credit criteria. SBA loan applications, for example, take an average of 451 days to process, with disbursement potentially taking several weeks. Credit cards may offer quicker access to funds, but their high interest rates can quickly eat into profit margins.
Understanding these challenges, CAKE sought a partner who could provide merchants with quick and flexible access to capital. As Greg Schmitzer, President of CAKE, explains:
"When we consulted our merchants about their biggest obstacles, access to fast, flexible funding came up repeatedly. The restaurant industry moves quickly, and unexpected expenses or growth opportunities often require immediate action. Without adaptable funding options, many businesses face barriers that hinder their success. We knew we needed to provide a solution that really worked for them."
Parafin’s embedded finance solutions are a perfect fit for CAKE’s businesses. By using sales data from CAKE’s POS systems for underwriting, Parafin removes the need for extensive paperwork, credit scores, and time-consuming documentation. This streamlined approach enables CAKE’s merchants to easily access pre-approved capital offers without the usual friction involved in applying for funding.
The application process was designed to be simple and efficient:
This approach transformed the funding experience for restaurant owners, providing quick and accessible capital tailored to their needs. Partnering with Parafin was an obvious choice for CAKE. Moreover, Parafin manages nearly every aspect of the capital program, including application approvals, funding, and servicing, making the process hassle-free for CAKE. This end-to-end support ensures that CAKE can focus on its core operations without being bogged down by the intricacies of financial program management.
A key component of CAKE’s capital program is its seamless integration with their existing system, which led to a smooth and efficient implementation process. Parafin’s data share tooling connects CAKE’s POS data effortlessly with Parafin’s advanced underwriting models, allowing the program to run without disruptions. This integration eliminated the need for complex technical adjustments, saving both time and resources.
CAKE’s primary role in the program is marketing, but even in this area, Parafin provides valuable assistance with a GTM kit that includes a marketing strategy, messaging frameworks, suggested copy, and insights to inform a channel strategy. Parafin also provides pre-built, in-portal dashboard tiles that require little engineering lift. These resources have enabled CAKE to effectively promote the program with minimal effort while ensuring a user-friendly experience for their merchants.
The streamlined integration and collaborative support have allowed CAKE to offer robust and impactful financial services to its users with minimal resource investment, all while achieving business growth for CAKE.
See how Parafin’s embedded capital solutions can create new growth opportunities for your platform and empower your customers. Contact us to get started.
Merchants are highly satisfied with CAKE Capital, with most survey respondents rating their experience as excellent. They highlighted key benefits such as the program's easy-to-follow processes and the responsive, timely support from Parafin. One CAKE merchant shared their experience, saying: "CAKE Capital made it easy to access needed capital to ride through season variations, while providing an easy payback system based on actual receipts. The money was deposited quickly and the withdrawals provide a gentle payback path. We looked at other options, but CAKE Capital fit our needs." This feedback shows how CAKE Capital is empowering small businesses and demonstrates the significant impact embedded financial services can have in delivering real and measurable results.
All survey participants agreed that the funding they received grew their businesses. It allowed them to take important steps like remodeling their locations, expanding their menus, opening new locations, upgrading equipment, investing in marketing, buying inventory and supplies, and hiring more staff.
“Launching a new financing product with Parafin was straightforward, because their products are built to work with just one integration. This allowed us to launch Starter Offers without the hassle of having to re-integrate and manage separate systems." - Heather Jordan, Executive Vice President of Product
Building on the program’s success, CAKE made the decision to expand their program. Initially, the capital program started as a focused launch with conservative marketing efforts to assess merchant interest and scale operations. With adoption rates exceeding expectations, CAKE identified strong growth potential and chose to expand its efforts. The company increased marketing placements and allocated additional resources while introducing a new product, the CAKE Capital loan.
CAKE has implemented Parafin’s pre-built capital widget, a seamless solution that requires little engineering effort to integrate. This user-friendly widget not only simplifies marketing execution but also delivers impressive results, increasing originations by 38%.
CAKE also introduced “Starter Offers,” short-term loans designed specifically for new CAKE merchants. Previously, businesses needed six months of POS data to qualify for CAKE Capital. With Starter Offers, eligible merchants that were newer to CAKE could access capital in a few weeks as a welcome benefit. This innovation transformed CAKE Capital from a retention-focused solution into a powerful acquisition strategy, while attracting new merchants to the platform from the outset.
For technology platforms like CAKE, offering embedded financial solutions is no longer a supplementary feature — it is a key competitive advantage. These solutions have the potential to attract, retain, and empower customers. The partnership with Parafin not only addresses a critical challenge for small businesses but also illustrates how integrating complementary services can elevate a platform’s overall value proposition for merchants.
B2B platforms looking to implement innovative financial solutions can learn from CAKE’s approach. By partnering with the right provider, businesses can achieve measurable success while delivering meaningful benefits to their customers.
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All loans are issued by Celtic Bank and are subject to credit approval.
