Sunday, November 17, 2024

UBX beefs up financing arsenal for MSMEs, partners with UNO, SEA’s first full-spectrum digital bank

UBX beefs up financing arsenal for MSMEs, partners with UNO, SEA’s first full-spectrum digital bank

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UBX, the country’s leading open finance platform, has entered into a strategic partnership with UNOBank (UNO Digital Bank), Southeast Asia’s first full-spectrum digital bank, to make credit more accessible to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide.

Through this collaboration, SeekCap will be able to further support MSME financing, while providing a wider platform for UNO Digital Bank to reach more customers.

With the alliance, micro entrepreneurs will be able to get financing even in the absence of formal financial data, utilising the combination of alternative data and psychometric scoring, which further democratizes access to credit to provide the necessary capital to expand their business. This initiative is done through UBX’ loans marketplace platform, Seekcap.

“SeekCap is the product of UBX’s desire to reach MSMEs, who traditionally, have no access to financing to grow their businesses because of the stringent requirements of banking. By democratizing access to loans, now with the help of UNO Digital Bank, we are not just contributing to the expansion of MSMEs but the economic growth of the Philippines as well,” UBX President and CEO John Januszczak said.

UNO Digital Bank is South East Asia’s first full-spectrum digital bank licensed under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). It is one out of only six digital banks licensed by the BSP.

A convenient alternative to traditional lending companies, SeekCap leverages its partners’ wide user base to offer loans to businesses. Its existing partners include leading online marketplace Lazada and online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda, among many others.

With the addition of UNO Digital Bank, microentrepreneurs will have a more seamless and digital experience in their entire financing journey.

The partnership makes it possible for potential borrowers to secure a loan term of 12 months and borrow as high as 250,000 PHP without the need for collateral.

Applicants without an approved loan need only check their inboxes for an invitation for a pre-qualified loan application to UNO Digital Bank to know which ones they can avail of for their business.

“As one of the BSP’s accredited digital banks, UNO can guarantee that our loan offerings are accessible, simple and offer relevant features for our customers. We are honored to work alongside UBX in carrying out inclusivity in the form of loan processing for MSMEs as this also plays a significant role in boosting the local financial ecosystem.” UNOBank CEO Manish Bai said.

SeekCap is an online lending marketplace that offers an end-to-end lending platform solution from loan origination until collection. Through the digital platform, business loans may be processed in as fast as 24 hours, which is significantly faster than the minimum 30-day approval time for most banks.

Seekcap brings lenders and borrowers closer via its platform, streamlining the process of getting a business loan while making financing more accessible for small businesses in the city.

SeekCap has processed over P27 billion of business loans from more than 65,000 MSMEs.

“Given that 99.51 percent of all businesses in the Philippines are MSMEs, SeekCap is in a position to make a significant change. By partnering with more and more financial players such as UNOBank, that opportunity grows even bigger,” Januszczak said.