JOHANNESBURG - Financial comparison website Fincheck said on Monday it had taken over the full management and equity in FundingHub, making it South Africa's biggest such site and the largest lead aggregator having signed on 71 banks, lenders and insurers.
FundingHub offers 30 alternative lenders and banks able to meet the needs of South African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) looking for finance to grow their businesses.
The business started two years ago and has attracted average loan sizes of R300,000, with the largest loan being R72 million.
SMEs who apply for funding on the online hub must have been in business for at least 12 months, with R1 million annual turnover.
“FundingHub allows SMEs to apply in under six minutes for business finance, comparing multiple accredited finance providers and to make the most appropriate choice based on their business needs," Fincheck CEO Michael Bowren said.
He noted that many different forms of finance were available to small and medium enterprises, making it difficult for them to choose which lender was best suited to their business needs.
"For instance, a business may not know whether it needs equipment finance, unsecured or secured term loans, overdrafts, lines of credit, debtor finance, merchant cash advances or credit cards," said Bowren.
"Free-to-use and independent FundingHub makes this really simple by filtering options and offering quotes from the most appropriate funders for their business.”
Fincheck is a gold member of AlphaCode -- Rand Merchant Investment Holdings, incubation, acceleration and investment vehicle for early-stage businesses which can disrupt the financial services industry.
“Business finance has come a long way since the days when SMEs had to approach their business bank manager, who didn’t know their business, who wanted a great deal of information and then would take around five months to revert with a no," AlphaCode head Dominique Collett said.
"Many of the fintechs on the FundingHub platform can put money in a business account within 24 hours.”
Fincheck said it would continue its core offering which allows consumers to compare business finance, business insurance, personal finance, life insurance, funeral cover, vehicle finance and insurance, debt consolidation and counselling as well as allowing a complete health check.