Shopify Capital MCA, Loan Origination Growth Appears to Slow Down

Shopify Capital, the funding arm of Shopify that provides merchant cash advances and loans to merchants on its platform, experienced no increase in these related receivables in Q1 compared to Q4 2023. The company typically records significant growth in this figure each quarter. Shopify used to broadcast its origination figures far and wide in each quarterly earnings report and call but has since gotten shy about this segment of its business and no longer discloses originations. Instead, its balance sheet line item for “Loans and merchant cash advances” is virtually all there is to go by now and they were listed at $815M in Q1 vs $816M the prior quarter. This, of course, only reflects anything they’ve kept on balance sheet and could be a misleading indicator if those receivables are being sold off or taken on by a third party.

Shopify’s major rival, Amazon, never disclosed origination figures for its Amazon lending program, and in March announced that it was discontinuing its in-house lending program altogether after a 12-year run.

Shopify is still among the largest online small business lenders in the US.