Small companies help developing nations like India prosper. It boosts GDP and creates many jobs. These companies need reliable funding throughout their lifespans. They struggled to get credit. Financial institutions have neglected small enterprises despite their expansion. The IFC found that formal financing satisfied just 15% of small enterprises’ credit needs.
Many small companies miss out on bank loan chances due to issues like being new to credit or having no credit history. FinTech entrepreneurs have helped underrepresented enterprises receive credit through digital financing.
Digital financing helps small firms
Digital financing platforms for small enterprises have evolved due to technical improvements and digitization. According to a Niti Aayog paper titled “Connected Commerce: Building a Pathway for a Digitally Inclusive Bharat,” this new lending procedure offers advantages over traditional lending, including speedier loan approval, alternative data for creditworthiness, and operating cost efficiency. FinTechs rushed to fill loopholes, especially in digital financing, as the government encouraged this industry. Digital financing has several benefits for small businesses.
Being inclusive
For the Indian economy to prosper, inclusive growth and opportunities for enterprises of all kinds and types to participate and contribute are crucial. Internet lenders have made lending more accessible, transparent, and easy for small businesses.
They use data-backed underwriting and cash flow-based analyses to sachetize lending size and enhance use cases. These online platforms provide variable tenure, little documentation, cheap interest rates, quick KYC, and loan payout in minutes, which attracts small enterprises. So, creditworthy small firms choose digital lending.
Easy credit access
Digital lenders are using imaginative solutions and fast loan approval to make finance more accessible even in rural areas. Small-town business owners may now readily obtain loans that was previously exclusively available in remote regions. Digital lending organizations utilize various algorithms to improve repayment, delay, and delinquency statistics with each repayment.
Technology removes biases and last-mile fraud in loan acceptance and decreases credit assessment time and cost, boosting unit economics.
Modern digital models can compute credit ratings, originate loans, issue financing, and collect repayments using borrower data without bias or constraints. Underserved enterprises receive more credit.
Loan disbursement
Leading digital lenders use firm success and financial health to assess loan eligibility. Lenders previously assessed loan applicants using financial data and paperwork. Due to data availability, digital lenders can swiftly determine the borrower’s loan type and interest rate.
When approving loans for business owners without credit histories, cash flows and transactional and behavioral baseline data replace financial information. AI and ML systems analyze alternative data, sales history, and other information to calculate credit scores. Automation speeds up digital data management and powerful analytics help digital lenders handle loan applications.
Credit coming for small enterprises
Indian banks dominate formal credit. During the previous several years, FinTech has disrupted and introduced many new projects, products, and innovations in this area. India’s 39.5 percent CAGR growth was driven by digital lending firms over a decade. Experian forecasted the Indian digital lending industry at USD 270 billion in 2022 and USD 350 billion in 2023.
Although many users are first-time business loan borrowers with little to no credit history, digital lending must continually innovate and empower small businesses. Technology and scalable credit infrastructure can help India solve its small business credit shortfall and boost small business contributions to economic growth by increasing formal, low-cost loans for small firms.