Among the many parts of the economy that require immediate attention and support as a result of COVID are the micro, small and medium enterprises. While the RBI has allowed a moratorium on term loans, eased working capital financing and deferred interest payment on working capital facilities without an asset classification downgrade, there is a significant loan funding gap in the MSME sector.

Here are 5 companies that are working to help SMEs and MSMEs to evolve and stay afloat during these times –

Crediwatch

Crediwatch is an AI-enabled platform that provides actionable insights and flexible workflows for seamless credit management and faster lending decisions. Crediwatch does this with no human intervention by deploying AI /ML and NLP tools that use scalable deep learning technologies across disparate digital footprints left by private entities (big and small). The company has partnered with respected financial institutions such as – SBI, Aditya Birla Financial Services, Karur Vysya Bank, RBL Bank, APAC Financial etc. to provide credit intelligence of more than 50 thousand businesses. The company has provided insights on 50,000+ businesses and $7 billion loan portfolio.

FlexiLoans

FlexiLoans is an online lending platform which started with an endeavour to solve the problem that MSMEs face in accessing quick, flexible, and adequate funds for growing their businesses. The platform’s technology-powered online marketplace is the best model to meet the financial requirements of MSMEs, who do not have a credit history and hence, cannot avail business loans from traditional banking channels.

Ziploan

Ziploan, a tech-enabled, RBI registered NBFC, helps in providing loans to small businesses. The platform addresses the need of the SME sector, which has been ignored by financial institutions. The platform generates a unique ZipScore for each loan applicant by developing an automated underwriting algorithm.

Happy Loans

Happy Loans Happy Loans provides customised loan offerings to micro-enterprise owners to meet their specific demands. It assesses over 1,000 variables about the merchant to underwrite their micro business. Its credit model is based on the merchant’s level of business engagement with the partner, their behaviour towards borrowing, APIs, demographics, and business trends.    The ML-based MSME digital lender has launched a ‘Lockdown Loan’. The digital credit facility is developed to address the working capital woes of Indian micro enterprises during the lockdown. It will provide them capital access of Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000, with bullet repayment after six months.

Locus

Locus, a global B2B SaaS company, has announced the launch of a free tool ‘QuickStart,’ which is a self-serve lite version of the product suite for startups and small and medium enterprises to improve their supply chain efficiency amid COVID-19 pandemic. The company is also providing a free trial for two months from the start of the subscription, which will help them improve their supply chain.