Flipkart has revamped its seller financing program, ‘Growth Capital’, in what it calls a bid to empower MSMEs in the country. Changes made last month will now allow the platform’s 1 lakh plus sellers to avail credit at competitive interest rates from 10 NBFCs and banks, with an approval time of 1 day and with disbursal into the sellers’ bank accounts occurring within 48 hours.
‘Growth Capital’ requires minimal documentation. Financial partners for the program include State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, Aditya Birla Finance, Tata Capital, Flexiloans, Small Industries Development Bank of India, LendingKart, Indifi and Happy Loans.
According to Flipkart, small scale seller will be most benefited by the program as a majority of the loans are used to meet working capital requirements and demand spikes. The average loan size is Rs. 7 lakh, but sellers can avail loans up to Rs 3 crore, at interest rates as low as 9.5%. The tenure on term loan and credit line options is upto 12 months.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and being a homegrown company, Flipkart is committed to helping sellers all across India grow. Our knowledge and understanding of the Indian ecosystem allow us to construct frameworks such as ‘Growth Capital’, through which sellers can scale their businesses, prosper, create more employment opportunities, and continue to transform the country’s economy. This is part of Flipkart’s core mission of developing shared value in the ecosystem and helping digitise India through the latest tech and innovations,” Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart, said in a statement.
Flipkart has also built an end-to-end API integration, from application to disbursal, with its lending partners to provide a complete digital loan application experience for the sellers. They can access and monitor their loans directly through the company’s seller portal. Flipkart’s in-house technology analyzes seller performance metrics for lenders to enable real time credit offers.
Ranjith Boyanapalli, Head of Fintech and Payments Group, Flipkart said, “The key aim of the Fintech arm of Flipkart is to use technology to power financial inclusion within the country. The ‘Growth Capital’ program will help us reach a traditionally underserved market and make financial services more accessible to all. Through this, the seller community on Flipkart will be able to transform their businesses and realise their growth aspirations. It is a natural progression of our Fintech journey to reach out to the seller community and empower them with easily accessible low-interest financing options.”