In August this year, Flipkart joined hands with Modi government to provide a sales platform to the handloom weavers in the country. According to the MoU signed between Flipkart and the Ministry of Textiles, handloom weavers could use the platform to sell their products, thus boosting their manufacturing activities.
Flipkart has now tied up with SMEcorner, which is an online financing platform for SMEs (small and medium enterprises), to facilitate loans and capital required for their activities. Many a times, they have to deal with middlemen and other similar factors, which come in the way and delay their loans. SMEcorner would take care of this hassle for them and assist in getting loans from banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
After the partnership was agreed on last week, quite a few sellers selling on Flipkart have now turned to SMEcorner for assistance. “There are many websites that offer personal/retail loans, mortgages, credit cards, etc., but none that offer SMEs an online platform to apply to banks/NBFCs for loans. Given the large number of SME sellers on e-commerce websites, we launched SMEcorner.com, aimed at arranging finance for the e-commerce ecosystem. Besides Flipkart, we also look to tie-up with other e-commerce sites, large B2B portals and SME chambers,” Samir Bhatia, founder & CEO, SMEcorner.com said.
Currently, SMEs find it difficult to secure loans in our country. As per data collected by International Finance Corporation (IFC), bank loans and solutions offered by financial institutions are not accessible for more than 41% of SMEs.
“When sellers on Flipkart require financing, the company refers them to us. Sellers can access the Flipkart button on our website and apply for a loan online by filling in details. After a preliminary credit analysis to figure out the seller’s credit-worthiness, we send the application to all our partner banks and NBFCs. The chance of getting a loan is much higher this way,” said Bhatia, explaining how the arrangement would work.
In the absence of middlemen, sellers can save on the fees or charges that they would otherwise have to pay for availing their services. Also, chances of securing loans are higher when done through an agency like SMEcorner.
After dwindling with her family business, into travel and hospitality, for more than 3 years, Pooja Vishant found her true love in writing. Happy-go-lucky and cheerful, she loves pink; so pink is the way to go if you want to get into her good books. The Associate Editor keeps track of even a leaf that has moved in the ecommerce world!
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