Aye Finance, FlexiLoans, to Lendingkart: 10 companies that are helping MSMEs avail easy credit
By leveraging tech-driven approaches and tailor-made financial instruments, these lending companies are changing the way small businesses avail credit.
The availability of digital infrastructure today is enabling Indian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to rapidly increase their business footprint by overcoming challenges. However, the biggest roadblock in the sector’s growth has been the availability of financial support.
Several lending platforms — by leveraging their cutting-edge tech-driven approaches — including AI, data analytics, and tailor-made financial instruments have created a difference in this area.
From collateral-free working capital loan to long-term loans for business expansion, SMBStory lists 10 lending platforms that are helping MSMEs avail easy credit.
Aye Finance is a commercial institution built with the mission to solve the funding challenges of MSMEs, and enabling their inclusion into the mainstream economy.
Aye Finance differentiates itself by creating a tech-enabled process that builds credit insights through a variety of available business and behavioural data.
This effective credit appraisal — coupled with the use of modern workflow automation — and a small but engaged workforce is bridging the gap between MSMEs and organised lending.
The company offers Rs 1-3 lakh of a borrowing line in the form of working capital to micro-enterprise owners, who typically have annual sales of Rs 25- 50 lakh. It has disbursed loans worth Rs 3,300 crore to over 2,30,000 Indian micro-enterprises.
Lendingkart Finance Limited is a non-deposit taking NBFC, primarily lending to Indian SMEs. The startup aims to transform small business lending by making it convenient for SMEs to access credit through its omnichannel origination channels.
Lendingkart provides short-term collateral-free working capital loans to MSMEs with minimal paperwork within 72 hours. The loan ticket size ranges between Rs 50,000 and 1 crore for a period of one to 36 months. It also offers several customised financial products to address today’s diverse business needs in competitive environments.
Since its inception, Lendingkart Finance has evaluated nearly half a million applications, disbursing over 1,00,000 loans to more than 90,000 MSMEs in over 1,300 cities across India.
Satya MicroCapital Limited is an NBFC-MFI that serves low-income entrepreneurs in rural and urban areas. The company provides prompt, convenient, and affordable collateral-free credit to unbanked and underserved people through a strong credit assessment and centralised approval system.
Satya MicroCapital’s firm belief in modern technology and its potential to increase efficiency, reduce risks, and enhance the overall customer experience is apparent in its adoption of cutting-edge innovations to power its operations.
Happy Loans provides customised loan offerings to micro-enterprise owners to meet their specific demands. It assesses over 1,000 variables about the merchant to underwrite their micro business.
Its credit model is based on the merchant’s level of business engagement with the partner, his/her behaviour towards borrowing, APIs, demographics, and business trends.
If the merchant is doing a healthy business with a partner, he/she is likely to get a big credit line from Happy Loans. It offers micro business loans that start as low as Rs 2,000 for a duration as short as 30 days.
MoneyTap is one of India's first app-based consumer credit line, where the bank issues loan up to Rs 5 lakh to the customers, without any collateral or charging any interest.
Using the MoneyTap app, consumers can borrow loans between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5 lakh. They can repay it as EMIs over two months to three years.
The app securely connects with the banking systems to give the customers not only an instant approval but also a credit limit, depending on individual credit history with real-time data from CIBIL.
Technology enables MoneyTap to provide instant decision and access to money 24/7, irrespective of holidays.
FlexiLoans is an online lending platform, started with an endeavour to solve the problem that MSMEs face in accessing quick, flexible, and adequate funds for growing their businesses.
The platform’s technology-powered online marketplace is one of the best models to meet the financial requirements of MSMEs, who do not have a credit history and hence, cannot avail of business loans from traditional banking channels.
FlexiLoans uses its differentiated technology to reach out to e-sellers and other financial lending institutions. It provides collateral-free loans within a short timeframe.
The platform has provided 10,000 loans to various MSMEs, disbursing over Rs 400 crore so far.
LenDenClub is one of India’s fastest-growing peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, which aims to provide hassle-free loans to MSMEs by leveraging AI-driven tech and an in-house assessment team.
LenDenClub has reportedly crossed more than one lakh lenders and borrowers to date.
NeoGrowth is an SME lending platform, registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The NBFC’s approach includes innovative technology and a digital payment ecosystem along with flexible repayment options.
NeoGrowth aims to bridge the credit gap for MSMEs by offering customised products to address customers multiple business needs.
Recently, NeoGrowth received an ISO 9001:2015 certification from The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). The startup is among the first few players in the SME lending space to receive this certification for quality assurance in its processes.
Vivriti Capital is a tech-enabled online marketplace that offers customised debt products to institutional clients within retail financial services and other non-financial services sectors.
Headquartered in Chennai, Vivriti Capital was established to connect capital market investors with institutions, small enterprises, and individuals to provide a comprehensive range of financial services in an efficient manner.
The platform claims to have more than 120 institutional investors/lenders, over 260 enterprise clients, over five lakh individual and SME borrowers. It has enabled debt exceeding Rs 30,000 crore.
Ziploan is a tech-enabled RBI registered NBFC that provides loans to small businesses. The platform addresses the need of the SME sector, which has been ignored by financial institutions.
The platform generates a unique ZipScore for each loan applicant by developing an automated underwriting algorithm.
Edited by Suman Singh