Facebook partners with Indifi to enable loans for small businesses

India is the first country where such a programme is being rolled out by Facebook, and is open to businesses registered across 200 towns and cities

Hyderabad: Facebook India launched ‘Small Business Loans Initiative’ to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) to get quick access to credit through independent lending partners. Indifi is the first lending partner that Facebook has tied-up with and the programme is built with the potential to bring more partners on board.

The programme aims to make business loans more easily accessible to small businesses and reduce the credit gap within India’s MSME sector. India is the first country where this programme is getting rolled out by Facebook. The programme is open to businesses registered across 200 towns and cities.

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Ajit Mohan, VP and MD Facebook India, said, “Facebook is deeply committed to creating economic opportunities for India’s small businesses. Access to timely capital is more important than ever as it can help them jump-start their recovery and drive big growth.”

“The country has made tremendous progress in the last few years in expanding access to credit. As a company, we are at the spear end of the digital transformation, and we believe that the Small Business Loans Initiative can provide big impetus to early entrepreneurs to fuel their ideas and their appetite for taking risks,” Mohan added.

The announcement came at a virtual event – ‘Enabling MSME Growth through Financial Inclusion’- hosted by Facebook India in partnership with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

Uday Shankar, president, FICCI said, “FICCI has always advocated for stronger private sector participation for the growth of India’s MSMEs and welcomes the launch of Facebook’s Small Business Loans Initiative to make access to credit more easily available to the industry. We look forward to collaborating with Facebook over the coming months to develop programmes and solutions that can provide an impetus to the sector.”

Collateral-free loans

Through Facebook’s partnership with Indifi, small businesses that advertise with Facebook can get loans at a predefined interest rate of 17-20 per cent per annum. The programme will also enable small businesses to apply for loans without collateral through a quick online application.

Small businesses applying under this programme will not be charged a processing fee. Indifi will also disburse the loan amount within five working days of the borrower completing all documentation formalities after acceptance of the offer by Indifi. Many small businesses face challenges in securing loans of lower ticket-size as they are not viable for many lenders. Through this programme, small businesses can get loans between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50 lakh.

Facebook is also committed to enabling opportunities for women-led businesses in India to thrive and grow. Small businesses that are wholly or partly women-owned can get a special 0.2 per cent reduction per annum on the applied loan interest rate from Indifi.

The programme is a not-for-profit arrangement with Facebook’s lending partners and small businesses are not obligated to spend their loan amount on Facebook advertising.