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Telkom Business partners with Fundrr to offer SMEs loans fast

The Yellow Pages have evolved from a tome into a sleek app that highlights businesses in your area.

Need a plumber? The Yellow Pages will show you the best person in your area.

But why are we talking about the Yellow Pages?

The Yellow Pages is a division of Telkom Business which has been championing SMEs for sometime now. The recent launch of its Yep app lets SMEs get online easily.

But today Telkom Business has announced a partnership with local fintech firm, Fundrr.

Fundrr, offers SMEs, small loans between R20 000 and R500 000 and Telkom Business is helping the firm reach more businesses.

With this new partnership, Telkom Business is now able to help business get online with its Yellow Mystart product – more on that in a bit – and fast track loans for SMEs through Fundrr.

“Online presence is more important than ever, especially during Covid-19. We offer all small businesses access to an online footprint which will enable growth and increased awareness within their sector. One of the biggest challenges for small businesses is access to funding, so we have teamed up with an alternative fintech lender for SMEs, Fundrr, to round off our offering by providing a holistic support package,” chief executive officer for Telkom Business, Yep and Yellow Pages, Lunga Siyo, said in a statement.

Through the partnership, businesses which have been operational for at least year, with a R1 million turnover or asset value, can apply for a loan.

In addition, if a business is not part of Yellow Mystart, Fundrr will pay for the first six months of the subscription.

Yellow Mystart offers bundles to SMEs to get an online presence up and running. The service usually costs R999 per month.

Speaking about the challenges SMEs face, chief executive officer at Fundrr, Idan Jaan, says that the firm is looking to plug the holes traditional banks and financial services have.

“We realised that new and innovative ways to evaluate small businesses for credit are needed. So few SMEs actually qualify for funding and there’s a desperate demand for financial assistance, particularly during this pandemic,” says Jaan.

“Consequently, we developed an automated credit model that analyses close to 100 data points that include data sources such as social media presence and online marketing presence to provide a more complete picture of a small business and its growth possibilities. These various data inputs, produce a Fundrr Score, and on this basis, we provide loans fast to small businesses ranging from R20 000 to R500 000,” says the CEO.

More details about the loans on offer as well as repayment terms can be found over on the dedicated website here.

Speaking of repayment terms, Fundrr offers tailored plans.

“We analyse the cashflow patterns of the business and recommend a repayment structure that best suits their income – either daily, weekly, bi-monthly or monthly over a 3 to 12-month period,” says Jaan. Rates of interest vary depending on the strength of the business. Lower risk businesses can expect to pay lower rates,” concludes Jaan.

Telkom Business looks to be becoming the one-stop shop for SMEs in South Africa and we hope to see more partnerships such as this in the future.

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