The challenge of successfully running a small business is anything but small. The constant difficulty of securing the financing they need to run and grow a sustainable business can be straining and tenacious for entrepreneurs.
Often the dream and reality don’t add up. There is a major struggle around bank financing for small businesses, the lack of capital and funding leads to shutting down or stops growth of these enterprises. Many seek multiple loans and constant rejection from banks and other investors leads to frustration negatively affecting the economy on a whole, since SMEs are the backbone of the Indian economy. They employ 40% of the work force and are responsible for 45% of the country’s manufacturing output.
Entrepreneurs max out credit cards or lean on friends for financial backup, which is a messy solution and has a long term negative impact on the business. So where do you seek support if you are a small business hoping for some much needed financial flow? Cointribe, is India’s first truly online lending platform.
The young generation of entrepreneurs in our country is full of ideas and great potential; but our country is lacking in providing them with the required financial assistance. To address this problem Cointribe has been created with a vision to provide access to efficient capital to all deserving businesses and individuals and enable them to realize their true potential.
WHY DOES INDIA NEED SME SECTOR?
SME sector of India is considered as the backbone of economy for contributing to 45% of the industrial output, 40% of India’s exports, employing 60 million people, create 1.3 million jobs every year and produce more than 8000 quality products for the Indian and international markets. With approximately 30 million SMEs in India, 12 million people expected to join the workforce in next 3 years and the sector growing at a rate of 8% per year, Government of India is taking different measures so as to increase their competitiveness in the international market.
There are several factors that have contributed towards the growth of Indian SMEs. Few of these include; funding of SMEs by local and foreign investors, the new technology that is used in the market is assisting SMEs add considerable value to their business, various trade directories and trade portals help facilitate trade between buyer and supplier and thus reducing the barrier to trade
With this huge potential, backed up by strong government support; Indian SMEs continue to post their growth stories. Despite this strong growth, there is huge potential amongst Indian SMEs that still remains untapped. Once this untapped potential becomes the source for growth of these units, there would be no stopping India from posting a GDP higher than that of US and China and becoming the world’s economic powerhouse.
Today the scenario of Indian SMEs has changed completely. Some of the SMEs is acquiring companies abroad as part of the globalization process. The SME sector has transformed themselves to the need of large local manufacturers and suppliers to global manufacturers. SMEs has also started investing in R&D activities in order to compete in the global market, so now more than ever it is essential that this sector receive financial support from not only banks and heavy investors but from the government and the people of this great Nation. Together we can reach our greatest potential and thrive as a democratic and secular country.
What is Cointribe?
The online lending marketplace cointribe was founded in the year of 2015, by finance and banking professionals, AMIT SACHDEV, ROHIT LOHIA and MANISH CHAUDHARI. The dynamic trio with their innovative startup is pumping new vigor to the SMEs in India.
Their lender matching system helps identify the most suitable lender for a borrower, based on lenders willingness to take risks and their policy requirements. Making a otherwise long and expensive process quick and cost effective. They also facilitate the collection of relevant documentation and support the lenders in following up with customers for timely payments.
They have raised $3 million pre-series A and the 90 member team are aiming to build a loan book size of Rs.600 core by the end of fiscal year of 2018. The founders of Cointribe are keen to bridge the financing gap in small and medium enterprises.
“There is still a huge gap in the SME unsecured loan segment. There are three private banks, which haven’t entered this unsecured segment. A platform like ours tying up with them means introducing new banking capital to this space,” Said AMIT SACHDEV, cofounder of Cointribe.
The primary reason small businesses can’t obtain bank loans is their failure to understand their business credit score, some not being aware at all. Cointribe helps such entrepreneurs gain access to capital and educates them on the process.
What is the business credit score?
When you receive a business loan or line of credit; sometimes called trade credit — information about your payment history is compiled by one of the business credit reporting bureaus and providers, and turned into a business credit score. A good credit score is essential for any business to prosper. It is imperative for an entrepreneur to separate his personal credit score from that of his business, and learn to build a reliable credit score in the market.
How to build a credit score
- Obtain a federal tax identification number (EIN).
- Open a business bank account. .
- Establish a business phone number. .
- Open a business credit file.
- Obtain business credit card(s).
- Establish a line of credit with vendors or suppliers.
How cointribe works?
The Gurgaon-based startup caters to the needs of small enterprises which have a turnover in the range of Rs 1-50 crore and helps secure loans of up to Rs 30 lakh. This startup has made the loan application process digital, which helps lenders find credit-worthy borrowers by assessing them for the risk. It also helps with the documentation process and securing loans repayments.
After the borrowers apply through the Cointribe platform, they are digitally risk assessed and rated on a scale of 1-5 from lowest to highest risk customers and their loan eligibility is recommended based on their ability to repay they are then matched with their potential investors.
Public sector banks have been providing secure business loans at very low rates and it is grossly wrong to say that they are not interested in lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but the fact remains that these banks are not geared to address this segment profitably, said Rohit Lohia, a credit focused online lending marketplace is therefore a much needed platform to get business and investors together.
By making the loan application process simple and hassle free for Small Businesses seeking loans and supporting their lending partners in sourcing borrowers, risk assessing them digitally, fulfilling the application, documentation for the approved borrowers and, also, in soft collection efforts on repayments, they have managed to bridge the gap between borrowers and lenders. While they do not charge the borrowers, they get compensated by our partner lenders in the form of a sourcing and risk-assessment fee or revenue sharing arrangements.
The high emphasis on solving the root causes of a problem, for Small Business Lending this lies in the efficient risk assessment. Empowered by strong credit assessment capabilities and supported by robust technology and product teams, Cointribe have been able to automate underwriting for SMEs and draw out strong insights which were not possible for a traditional underwriter to assess or identify. For example, rather than relying on a bureau score, they try to impute various behavioral indications from borrowers’ history. While a bureau would penalize a borrower for late repayments, at Cointribe they try to build context around it first. For example, a borrower who had a late payment in a small period but has been regular since reflects a high resilience borrower, implying that the borrower has been tested in times of stress and the intent demonstrated by the borrower is to bounce back and repay the obligations rather than default on it. A high resilience borrower is a better target than someone whose behavior during a period of stress is not known.
In the absence of several such insights that is generated by the digital portal, the traditional underwriters fall back on broad rules of thumb due to which they often end up rejecting suitable candidates for insubstantial reasons. By providing these insights and recommendations to lenders they have been helping SMEs get loans, some of whom would have otherwise failed to pass the credit filters of a bank.
THE EASIEST WAY TO GET FUNDS; simply
Apply: Just fill in your personal or business details, upload few documents and you’re done. This just takes few minutes!
Instant Custom Offer: The cutting-edge risk analytics and matchmaking algorithms get your custom loan offer within seconds. Instant approval
Get Funds Quickly: Get funds in your bank account within 3 days from document submission.