AskmePay, the payment initiative of the AskMe group*, has launched a new program called AskmeFin which will provide working capital loans, overdraft facilities and loans against receivables to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who have partnered with the company. AskmeFin has tied-up with Mahindra Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Capital Float, Religare, SMEBank.in and Mandii.com for the same.
AskmeFin will be providing collateral-free loans ranging from Rs 50,00 to Rs 1 crore to its sellers with repayment tenures of 15 days to 6 months. Loans for Askme’s SME partners will be approved faster along with pre-approved offers. The financing options will be for SMEs who serve AskMe, AskmeBazaar, AskmePay, AskmeFurniture and AskmeGrocery.
Kiran Murthi, CEO of AskmePay, said loans to SMEs will be approved based on sales information available on Askme’s databases.
Other lending programmes by ecommerce companies in India
– In June, Amazon extended its business loan programme to small sellers in India. The Amazon Lending programme, which provides short-term working capital for sellers to expand their business, is on an invite basis only and not open to all sellers.
– Flipkart Marketplace, is offering sellers on its platform access to easy loans through lending partners Capital Float and Lendingkart. It directs sellers to fill out a simple ‘expression of interest’ form, which requires sellers to indicate the expected loan amount (Rs 5 lakh to over Rs 50 lakh), select the preferred loan partner, and provide details about how they would be using the loan . Sellers also need to sign a formal agreement.
– Snapdeal had also tied-up with Capital Float to launch Capital Assist, which essentially serves the same purpose of providing sellers with easy access to working capital loans.
– As part of its trade facilitation centre (TFC), Chinese ecommerce player Alibaba has tied-up with ICICI Bank o provide trade finance and with certification company SGS to provide credit checks and inspections for the TFC.
*Disclosure: Askme Group is an advertiser with MediaNama
Image source: Flickr user Chris Goldberg
