Having easy access to finance is likely to be a key driver in the future success of your firm’s small and medium-sized (SME) clients. SMEs need the right amount of capital in the business to turn their ambitious long-term growth plans into reality – and that’s going to make finding flexible routes to finance an important part of your firm’s agenda for 2022 and beyond.
The good news is that Capitalise and Funding Circle have partnered to offer you and your clients a brand new Instant Offers route to finance – giving SMEs instant decisions on loan applications of up to £100k, and providing the capital they need to grow.
A growing sense of SME optimism
As we near the end of 2021, SME owners will be looking to the new year and planning out their strategy for 2022 and beyond. After the bumpy ride that was 2020 to 2021, many small businesses are seeing stable recovery and growth, with a rising sense of optimism to be found.
A quarter of business owners feel 'more prepared than ever' to guide their companies to success following the pandemic, according to a recent survey of 1,000 SMEs. And there are signs that the UK’s SMEs have ambitious plans for expansion, growth and diversification, according to the latest stats from Funding Circle.
SMEs have clear plans for growth over the next 12 months:
- 33% will be taking the opportunity to reach a totally new customer base
- 29% will be growing their online sales
- Just under a quarter (23%) plan to launch new products
- One-in-four have plans to upgrade their social media presence.
Businesses clearly want to create a positive future for the coming year, with forward-looking plans to expand their operations. But, to achieve this, they’re likely to need external finance.
The vital need for fast, efficient funding
For SMEs’ strategic and tactical plans to be successful, your clients will need capital behind them. As their valued adviser, this is where you can really help to guide their financial planning.
There are still routes to government-back funding, including the Recovery Loan Scheme that will be available until June 2022. But the access that different size businesses have to easy funding is variable. Larger corporate businesses and multinationals still have good access to bank funding, making use of their long-term stability, business age and lower credit risk to borrow. But for smaller, younger businesses, the path to fast, available funding is more difficult.
In part, this has been the driver behind our Instant Offers partnership with Funding Circle.
By creating our Instant Offers platform, we wanted to offer a fast, direct route to finance. A finance channel where decisions on loans could be instantaneous, and SMEs can access the capital they need to grab their strategic opportunities as they appear.
Adding client value with Instant Offers from Capitalise and Funding Circle
Instant Offers is driven by Funding Circle’s innovative Instant Decisions technology, using machine learning and AI technology to give fast, frictionless decisions on SME loans of up to £100k. It’s an approach to funding that will transform your funding advisory services.
This brand-new route to funding offers:
- Frictionless lending – with Instant Offers, you can seamlessly provide Funding Circle loans to small businesses, directly from within your own website. Funding Circles’ new Application Programming Interface (API) provides direct integration, allowing you to natively embed Funding Circle into your firm’s web pages.
- Immediate decisions – Funding Circles’ machine learning and Instant Decision technology streamlines the whole lending process. SME clients can apply for funding within minutes, receive a decision in seconds and have money in their account within 24 hours. Receiving the funds at this speed allows SMEs to act fast on opportunities, or take proactive action to avoid any upcoming threats.
- A competitive edge for your firm – Capitalise.com and Funding Options are the first partners to leverage this new API capability, giving your firm a competitive edge as a Capitalise partner – and giving you the ability to offer real and tangible finance options to your clients, in an instant.
The UK’s SMEs are eager to start a new chapter that sets the foundations for full recovery and ambitious growth. Offering fast funding could well be a game-changer, and puts your firm at the forefront of the new value-led, advisory approach to client service.
Find out more about Instant Offers
Adding Instant Offers to your practice website couldn’t be easier. Once you have Funding Circle’s API installed, your SME clients will be able to apply instantly for funding, all within the scope of your funding advisory service.
Sign up to Instant Offers now and start seeing the difference you can make for SME clients.
If you want the full lowdown on Instant Offers, then please do get in touch
- Call us on 020 3696 9700
- support@capitalise.com
