More than 1,000 SMEs apply for finance during the Christmas holidays
MORE THAN 1,000 small business owners applied for finance with business lender Iwoca between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.
New data from the business lender also showed that there were almost 200 funding applications on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2018 and 115 on New Year’s Day 2019.
Iwoca’s research concluded that the demand for serving small business owners outside of traditional banking hours is growing. Between 2017 and 2018, 48 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises signed up for funding outside of banking hours; but this rose to 55 per cent in 2019. Almost 50,000 out-of-hours applications were made between 2017 and the first half of 2019.
Read more: Open for business
“Whether it’s over Christmas or even on New Year’s Day, Iwoca is there for small business owners whenever they need us,” said Seema Desai, Iwoca’s chief operating officer.
“We’re helping business owners to get access to finance at all times, so that we can help relieve some of the daily strain. And when they need finance, we can deliver it fast. Our personal best loan time – from starting an application to money in the bank – is under four minutes, and banks simply can’t match our level of speed and convenience.”
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