iCapital Review

Friday, January 17th

2025 Canadian Business Loan Reviews

iCapital

• Borrow up to $250,000
• Get a term loan, merchant cash advance, secured business loan, or line of credit
• 98% approval rate
• Funding typically within 48 hours
• Eligibility requirements: in business for at least 6 months, over $100,000 in annual sales
• Daily or weekly repayments
• Backed by DC Bank
• In business since 2007

iCapital is a digital-only lender offering business loans in Canada. In operation since 2007, the platform is backed by DC Bank and is available to companies throughout the nation. iCapital is a proud member of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Multiple loan types and easy-to-meet eligibility criteria

There are several lending products available to businesses here, which may include traditional term loans, merchant cash advance, line of credit, and secured (for homeowners who want to use their property as collateral). With iCapital, you can borrow up to $250,000 as long as you have been in business for at least 6 months and you bring in over $100K in annual sales. It was interesting to note that iCapital's term loans have a flat fee (that they don't disclose upfront), rather than an interest rate.

Some inconsistencies

But, there were some discrepancies as we browsed the information for iCapital's term business loans that caught our attention. For example, at the top of the page it says that these one-time loans can be repaid in a set amount daily or weekly over a period lasting up to 24 months; however, the FAQ called it a micro loan and described daily payments over terms of up to 12 months, and in yet another place it described repayments being taken five days a week.

Loan options and details can get confusing

And, when we clicked on the "More Info” button on the Line of Credit option, we were taken to a separate page (with a copyright date back in 2020) that started out describing secured loans, which wasn't what we were expecting. Unlike the term loan page, there was no FAQ or easy-to-view qualification criteria here; we had to click through the prequalification questions to determine that line of credit loans require monthly sales of at least $10,000, and after that iCapital jumps right into the application. We're not sure that line of credit is even still an option; in other places on the site, we didn't see it mentioned. Instead, iCapital described merchant cash advances and loans secured by the primary residence of the business owner. You'll want to click around and see what exactly is on offer here, when you're ready to apply for a business loan.

Where's the feedback?

We were surprised to see that, despite being in operation for over 10 years, iCapital has a "Not Rated” status with the Better Business Bureau, with the BBB saying they don't have enough information to issue a grade for the company. That tracks with what we found (or, rather, didn't find) elsewhere: not a lot of feedback from small business owners regarding their experiences getting funding via iCapital. Even the company's 50+ glowing reviews on Facebook turned out to be primarily the spammy kind (you know, the ones that talk about Forex Trading and invite you to reach out on WhatsApp...). And, on Trustpilot, the most "recent” review was back in 2022, with the rest being from 2016 and earlier.

Some big brands in the portfolio

All of that is really hard to reconcile with iCapital's list of clients, which include DQ, Jiffy Lube, Esso, Mac's, and several other big-name brands. Maybe that's because DC Bank is the actual lender behind the iCapital platform, and that financial institution does have an "A+” rating from the BBB? Still, if iCapital really is doing the kind of volume you'd expect from a business loan provider that has major companies among its clients, why aren't we seeing hundreds (or even dozens?) of reviews from small business owners?

Good but not great

We give iCapital a slightly better-than-average rating because we're sure they're on the up and up, and they very well can connect you with funding specific to small businesses (unlike some of the options on our list that rank lower). But, to move any higher here, iCapital needs to do a better job of clearing up some of the discrepancies we found throughout the process, and maybe disclosing more details (like the flat fees business owners should expect to pay when taking out a loan). And, it would help to see iCapital landing on the radar of more small business owners (or at least convincing them to get out there and leave more feedback).