Unlocking Liquidity,
Expanding Horizons
Pakistan’s First Invoice Discounting Venture promises SMEs a future.
Who are we?
Smart Finance
The first SECP-licensed invoice discounting company in Pakistan that aims to change the fortunes of thousands of SMEs operating in Pakistan. Smart Finance aims to fill the gap left by policymakers and lending institutions by supporting SMEs with fast-tracked loans at competitive interest rates through invoice discounting. Invoice discounting is the practice of using a company’s unpaid accounts receivable as collateral for a loan, which is issued by a finance company. This practice allows Smart Finance Limited to streamline and accelerate the application process for SME loans which typically takes months through traditional channels owing to stringent credit approval and documentation criteria. Smart Finance’s seamless online application process allows SMEs to be approved for loans in as much as 24 hours.
What are SMEs?
Small and Medium Enterprises (“SMEs”) are a curious economic phenomenon in Pakistan. Second, only to the agricultural sector, the over 3.25 million SMEs operating in the country provide employment to the highest percentage of the working population. Responsible for 40% of the GDP and 25% of the exports, SMEs represent a point of departure from the reliance on primary goods and the agrarian economy, promising progress and innovation. Despite their obvious importance, financial inclusion and institutional support for SMEs is drastically low with 97% of SMEs being unbanked and operating in the informal sector. By June of 2021, SME financing stood at a paltry Rs437 billion, less than 7% of the total private sector credit in the country and representing a little over 170,000 SME borrowers. Hence presently, in Pakistan, access to credit for SMEs is extremely limited. Without the necessary financing and technical skills to improve management and operating performance, producers have to rely on informal channels to secure liquidity for their business. The abnormally high pricing of such informal loans leads to an erosion of any margins in the business.
Smart Finance Limited
The first SECP-licensed invoice discounting company in Pakistan that aims to change the fortunes of thousands of SMEs operating in Pakistan. Smart Finance aims to fill the gap left by policymakers and lending institutions by supporting SMEs with fast-tracked loans at competitive interest rates through invoice discounting. Invoice discounting is the practice of using a company’s unpaid accounts receivable as collateral for a loan, which is issued by a finance company. This practice allows Smart Finance Limited to streamline and accelerate the application process for SME loans which typically takes months through traditional channels owing to stringent credit approval and documentation criteria. Smart Finance’s seamless online application process allows SMEs to be approved for loans in as much as 24 hours.
Our Assessment Variables
Smart Finance would be evaluating its impact assessment through the following four parameters
Growth
Financial Inclusion
Employment
Gender Equality
Why Smart Finance
Speed
We provide the financing solution within 1 business day, and we can even pay out the money within 1 hour
Simplicity
We just need few documents and no tangible security to make the decision and process the transaction
Seamless Process
Smart Finance’s innovative technology platform has most seamless transaction flow.
Service Quality
We value our business relationships and service delivery to the smallest in business ladder is at the top of our priority list
Security
We’re an SECP licensed NBFE with a very secure integration, so you’re in good hands
Creating Opporunities
The SECP’s enthusiasm for this venture represents not only their faith in Smart Finance but highlights their own ambition and desire to see SMEs thrive in Pakistan About getting license
We are thankful to the SECP for reposing their trust in me and my team who are on a mission to provide liquidity and expand horizons for the SMEs in the country. This would not only empower the SMEs but would contribute immensely towards Pakistan’s GDP. We intend to help thousands of small businesses in the country, through our technology platform, facilitated by internet access and smartphone penetration in the country.
Naweed Sharif
With immediate access to liquidity at low-interest rates, Smart Finance represents not only a solution to the financial woes of SMEs, but rather the opportunity for the mobilization of resources which can have a generative effect on productivity, employment, and economic development across the country, beginning from the lowest rung of the financial ladder.
