A Sydney-based online lender is pioneering a new form of fintech lending in Australia – by offering loans based off the totals from small businesses’ EFTPOS machines.
Apickle have announced an interest free loan to help SMEs with cash flow problems, introducing a style of financing that has been used previously abroad but is still in its infancy in Australia.
“Our competitive advantage is that we’re nimble and we can do things relatively quickly,” said Apickle Managing Director Peter Wyszenko. “It is an unsecured loan. EFTPOS finance is relatively new in Australia, though it has been established internationally for quite some time. For us to be able to be a part of it – we’re over the moon to be able to offer it.”
“It’s really just a matter of being able to ask people what they have done in the last six months and see what their EFTPOS terminal has done, and then lend them the average. It’s done without using security or anything like that, so it speeds the process up, and it gives businesses the working capital that they need.”
“Our competitive advantage is also that it’s interest-free business finance and it’s not conventional business finance: it’s based on card sales, and the more card sales you make, the more you pay back and vice versa. If you didn’t do any sales today, then we’re not charging. It’s interest free and it’s done on their terms.”
For Wyszenko, the market is primed for a product such as Apickle’s to give SMEs options.
“Now that JobKeeper has vanished, there’s never been a more important time,” he said. “Businesses need to be able to get onto alternatives. If there’s not an alternative out there, then there’s going to be a lot of private lenders where they’ll have to pay higher interest rates, there’ll be credit cards, and that’s not really an intrinsic way to build a business. It’s very long term.”
“A lot of businesses can pay back that higher interest rate and it’s certainly a good alternative, but at the same time, due to what has happened in the last couple of years, it’s going to be difficult.”
