Many South African businesses have been decimated, and millions of employees are losing their jobs on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yellow Pages by Telkom Business aims to fast track the growth of SMEs by offering telecommunications and marketing support and has now teamed up with Fundrr to offer loans to businesses wanting to grow.
Yellow Pages, which is a division of Telkom Business, provides support packages that help small businesses develop their online visibility and grow their sales and branding into new markets.
“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,” says Lunga Siyo, CEO: Telkom Business, Yep and Yellow Pages.
“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.”
Fundrr provides one of the quickest turnarounds on business loan applications in the market. The application and onboarding are completed online in under 8 minutes and responses are provided within 24 hours.
It offers loans for South African businesses in any industry that have at least a 12-month track record, with a minimum of R1 million turnover or asset value and which are operational under the current lockdown level.
Funding is typically used to buy stock, open new stores, purchase equipment, undertake renovations or expand the business.
If you are a Telkom Business and/or Yellow Pages client and you qualify for a loan, Fundrr will provide you with funding for your business faster.
If you are not a Telkom Business or Yellow Pages client and you wish to become one, if you successfully apply for funding, Fundrr will pay for your first six-months Yellow Mystart subscription which will help your business to gain online traffic, increase its turnover through online revenue streams, improve SEO and increase your social media presence.
This collaboration will allow you to grow your business by getting access to working capital as well as marketing and online support.
“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,” Fundrr CEO, Idan Jaan, explains.
“There’s insufficient government support available and banks lack the appetite and understanding how to underwrite small businesses. The copious amount of paperwork and long turnaround times preclude small businesses accessing the working capital they require.
“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.”
The repayment of loans is also tailored.
“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.
Fundrr offers an early repayment incentive and specifies the amount of the loan, the duration and the total amount to be repaid upfront with no hidden fees.
Businesses will only qualify if they have not had any judgement, default or debt reviews in the past.
