BENGALURU: Facebook on Friday launched its lending initiative for nearly 30 million small businesses which have a presence on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, by offering them small-ticket loans in the size of Rs 5-50 lakhs in collaboration with Indifi, a lending platform.
Indifi is a series C funded debt financing platform, backed by Omidyar Networks, Accel Partners and Elevar Equity which has disburses more than 20,000 loans and has 20 lenders on board. The social media giant has been eyeing the Medium and Small Enterprises (MSME) market in India for quite sometime now. India is the first market, where the company has launched a lending programme for small businesses.
The loans will have a pre-defined interest rate of 7-20% per annum and will be disbursed within five days.
Facebook’s Managing Director (India) Ajit Mohan said that the internet firm doesn’t plan to monetise through its fresh initiative and the procedures/ eligibility of loan disbursal will be decided by the partner lenders. In days to come, Facebook plans to partner with Non-Banking Financial Corporations (NBFCs) and other lenders to help expand the initiative. Facebook has rolled out the programme in 100 cities and will soon expand the initiative to 100 more cities across India.
Mohan told TNIE that endeavour will be to help those businesses scale who typically find it difficult to access credit through the conventional lending channels. “Facebook’s role will be to assess business in terms of its activity, behaviour on various platforms which includes advertising as well as selling online,” he added.
“The integration of business through Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram platforms, announcements of data sharing on business groups recently signal a change in monetisation strategy of the company, beyond social networking,” a top industry insider said. For the cash crippled SME industry, which has already borne the brunt of Covid and slowed consumption, digital sales offer a new avenue accelerated by changed shopping behaviour during the pandemic.