SBI and TReDS platform Invoicemart join hands to finance MSME loans
Seeking to boost access to working capital for more than 1,400 MSMEs, digital invoice discounting marketplace Invoicemart has joined hands with State Bank of India, which will act as a loan financier, say media reports.
Narayanan Sadanandan, Chief General Manager, SME and Supply Chain Finance, SBI, said, “Elevating the MSME segment has been a prime focus at State Bank of India, and TReDS has been substantial in helping this segment with easy financing options. We have taken several steps to ensure timely delivery of credit to MSMEs through other initiatives, and this association is another step towards the process of digitisation.”
Invoicemart enables discounting of invoices of MSME sellers raised on large buyers through a transparent bidding mechanism that ensures financing of receivables at competitive market rates. It is an A.TREDS Ltd company. A.TREDS Ltd is a joint venture between Axis Bank and mjunction services. It is an entity approved by the RBI to operate its TReDS platform. Kalyan Basu, CEO and MD, A.TReDS, said, “We are glad that India’s largest and oldest bank -State Bank of India, has come on board the Invoicemart platform.”
The platform allows MSME suppliers to avail finance quickly and at competitive interest rates. This in turn helps boost their working capital efficiency without impacting their relationships with buyers. Invoicemart has 22 financiers on the platform, and it is expected to grow to 25 by the end of February 2019, the reports added.
Basu said, “SBI has had a huge franchise in supporting MSME financial inclusion, and this association will help with formalising and digitising the MSME lending process, and also pave a way for MSMEs to find cheap financing options in a transparent and easy manner via TReDs.”
Last November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the decision to make it mandatory for companies whose turnover exceeds Rs 500 crore to be registered on the TReDS platform in order to smoothen cashflow for MSMEs.
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