# The LAUNCH. Funding Cost Benchmark

What each funding route actually costs a staffing agency: effective annual rate on cash advanced for factoring and payroll funding across the fee grid, compared with a bank line and with equity.

Updated: 2026-08-31

## Direct answer

Invoice factoring at a 1.5% discount fee per 30 days on a 45-day receivable costs roughly 27% effective annual rate on the cash advanced, before service fees. A bank line at 11% APR is cheaper, but most agencies under three years old cannot get one. This benchmark publishes the full fee grid so you can price your own term sheet.

## Methodology

1. Each row prices a single funding structure against $250,000 of monthly invoiced revenue, the same engine that powers our funding cost calculator.
2. Factoring cost = (advance × discount fee × days/30) + (invoiced value × service fee). Effective annual rate is annualised cost divided by the cash actually advanced, which is the only fair comparison against an APR.
3. Fee grids shown are the ranges commonly quoted to UK and US staffing agencies. They are structural rates, not offers, and your own term sheet will differ on advance rate, reserve, recourse and minimum volume.
4. Equity is not shown as an APR because it has none. It is included as a dilution comparison at the LAUNCH. seed range of $50k–$250k.

## Download

[Download the complete CSV](https://launch-rec.com/api/public/data/funding-cost-benchmark.csv)

## Attribution

Cite as: LAUNCH. (2026). The LAUNCH. Funding Cost Benchmark. Launch Found. https://launch-rec.com/data/funding-cost-benchmark