Flipkart revamps seller financing program to help MSMEs

Bengaluru: E-commerce firm Flipkart has revamped its seller financing programme to enable financial inclusion and independence for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) who operate online. The changes will allow the platform’s over one lakh sellers avail credit at competitive interest rates from 10 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and banks, now with an approval time of one day and with disbursal into the sellers’ bank accounts occurring within 48 hours.

Government estimates suggest that there are over 60 million MSMEs in India. For many of these, securing financial access and liquidity is challenging.

The ‘Growth Capital’ initiative from Flipkart aims to fill the gap between financial institutions and the underserved, through technology and digital economy. This programme is the latest in a slew of seller-empowering initiatives that Flipkart has implemented to support sellers aspiring to scale and leverage e-commerce to reach their full potential.

“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,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart, in a statement

‘Growth Capital’ requires minimal documentation and has a seamless application process. Financial partners for the programme 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.

The sellers that benefit most from the programme are small scale and a majority of the loans are used to meet working capital requirements and demand spikes. The average loan size is ₹7 lakh, but sellers can avail loans up to ₹3 crore, at interest rates as low as 9.5%. The tenure on term loan and credit line options is up to 12 months.