SME TradeLinks, a small business development specialist, recently announced its new strategic partnership with the FundingHub, a newly launched fintech company, to drive lending into the South African SME sector.

SME TradeLinks Founder and CEO, Dr. Salifou Siddo, who was the former CEO of the Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP), said: “This new facility is particularly relevant to tourism SMEs such as restaurants, caterers, event management companies, as well as retailers such as curio shops whose operational requirements involve sourcing capital on a regular basis to buy inputs to deliver on orders in a timely manner. From this perspective, our partnership with FundingHub addresses not only the issue of availability of funding to our clients, but it also shortens considerably the time it takes for a lending decision to be made and for funds to be disbursed."               

The new website is easy to use and by asking a prospective borrower to answer a few questions about the finances of the business, it is able to match them to the appropriate lenders. It is then up to the prospective borrower to select the lender which best meets their needs. The lenders will then provide quotes.

There are currently 10 lenders on the platform, including Nedbank, Retail Capital, Lulalend and Transaction Capital.

In order to qualify to borrow, an SME needs to demonstrate a minimum trading history of six months, and an annual turnover of at least R1 million (€65 000). There are no minimums or maximums in terms of the amount that an SME can borrow.

Through this partnership with FundingHub, SME TradeLinks clients now have access to a variety of financial products, including equipment finance, debtor finance, bridge finance, purchase order finance, secured loans, unsecured loans, merchant cash advance, line of credit, overdrafts and credit cards.

He adds: “This partnership with FundingHub is an important milestone for us as it allows us to bring on stream our Access to Finance activities in an extremely efficient manner. Because the platform is technology driven, there is no reliance on long and complicated paper-based application forms. Also, because the platform is a marketplace of lenders, it stimulates competition and provides SME borrowers with variety and choice.”