Partner: 360 Payments
Segment: Payments provider with focus on serving automotive, medical, and dental businesses
Products: Capital (MCA, Term, and Flex loans), Spend1
Milestones:
Source: Parafin, October 20252
360 Payments began with a simple goal: to be “the good guys in a bad industry.” Founded by small business advocates frustrated by hidden fees, tricky contracts, and poor service in traditional payments, 360 Payments built its reputation on transparency and empathy. Over time, the company found its strongest foothold among independent automotive repair shops. Many are owner-led businesses where the mechanics turning wrenches also run payroll and manage cash flow.
By 2021, 360 Payments had become more than a payments processor. It was a trusted partner for business owners. That trust positioned them perfectly to help solve one of their customers’ biggest pain points: access to fast, flexible working capital.
Anita Gibbs, Chief Operating Officer at 360 Payments, explained that she and her team talked often with shop owners at trade shows and through their partner network. During these conversations one theme came up over and over again. Small businesses were shut out of traditional financing. Banks tended to be slow, paperwork-heavy, and often required businesses to have extensive operating history. Even successful auto shops struggled to bridge gaps between paying for costly parts and getting reimbursed once a job was done.
“It’s a cyclical market,” Anita explained. “Sometimes our customers just need a little help to make payroll during slow seasons or buy parts for a really big engine rebuild so they can finish the job.” Owners wanted to add new bays, expand to second locations, or buy better diagnostic machines, but they lacked the upfront cash to invest. The challenge wasn’t just capital, it was convenience. 360 Payments customers needed a way to access funds quickly, without sacrificing trust or control.
The 360 Payments team knew they could deliver financing that felt as simple and supportive as their payments experience. Rather than build an in-house lending engine, a process that would have required major legal, financial, and engineering resources, 360 Payments chose to partner with Parafin.
The collaboration began at a trade show where 360 Payments’ founders and Parafin’s team immediately recognized a shared culture of customer obsession and long-term thinking. From there, the collaboration moved remarkably fast. Parafin handled the underwriting, compliance, and AI-powered underwriting models, while 360 Payments focused on customer relationships and messaging. Implementation was so smooth that 360 Payments’ own director of development integrated the API solo.
Anita, who has been in the finance and technology services space for 25 years and worked with many integration partners, remarked that “working with Parafin has just been phenomenal. Parafin did a lot of the heavy lifting and made it simple for our team.”
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Together, the teams launched 360 Capital, a white-labeled lending program that let customers access working capital directly via 360 Payments. The launch was followed by steady innovation:
Beyond technology, Parafin supported go-to-market planning and marketing enablement, helping 360 Payments fine-tune campaign cadence and creative based on analytics and customer feedback.
The partnership didn’t just meet expectations, it reshaped how 360 Payments thought about growth. Since launching in 2021, the program has surpassed $100 million in total originations, funding more than 3,000 cash advances and loans to 900+ small businesses. 85% of businesses who remained eligible for 360 Capital have taken additional capital, which speaks to the trust customers have built in the program.
Businesses use capital not just to get through slow months but to take bold steps forward: adding bays, hiring new techs, even purchasing second or third shops. For them, the appeal is the ease and flexibility. Eligible businesses see quick approvals and repayments that adjust with sales. For shop owners, that kind of flexibility isn't available via more traditional financing that is usually based on fixed payments and where they can incur late fees.
“In the automotive industry, especially for independent shops, it’s really hard to get a financial institution to back you up. With 360 Capital they saw our potential. They asked a couple questions and I had the money in three days.”
— Juan Bonilla, Managing Partner, RSC Automotive Repair Center, 360 Capital customer
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Beyond the numbers, the impact shows up in stories. Shop owners are expanding for the first time, family-run businesses are humming during seasonal dips, and long-time customers are deepening loyalty. “We see their success as our success,” Anita said. “We’re helping families put food on the table.”
With new offerings like 360 Spend Card1, 360 Payments and Parafin continue to grow side by side. It’s proof that when two companies share values, innovation happens naturally.
Learn more about how Parafin can help grow your small business customers through our white-labeled embedded financing programs.
1 "360 Spend Card" ("Spend Card")—collectively and interchangeably used herein. Parafin is a financial technology company, not a bank. Spend Cards are issued by Column N.A. (“Column”), Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Spend Cards are powered by Marqeta. Approval is not guaranteed and is subject to checks. Terms and conditions apply. See http://parafin.com/cardholder_agreement for more information regarding the Spend Card.
2 Based on Parafin analysis of 360 Payments businesses through October 2025.
All loans are issued by Celtic Bank. All loans and offers are subject to credit approval, identity verification, and are subject to periodic review and may change without notice. Bank transfers are subject to review.
