ANEXT Bank, a digital wholesale bank incorporated in Singapore and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ant Group, today unveiled its latest initiative to drive further industry collaboration as part of its mission to enable effortless and inclusive financing for SMEs. The initiative aims to improve and scale embedded finance for SMEs, making it easier for businesses to access financing, as well as to monitor and manage it on platforms where they run their business.

The NEXT Programme for Industry Specialists¹ is open to the participation of all e-commerce marketplaces, fintech companies, and digital solutions providers who support SMEs’ cross-border operations through digital-based services or platforms. NEXT Bank will collaborate with these industry specialists to expand the breadth of service offerings for SMEs on their platforms to include digital financial services offered by ANEXT Bank.

This will allow SMEs to have one-stop access to a more comprehensive suite of services, and to gain a consolidated view of their business such as wallet balance, loan amount and repayment status, etc.

Speaking of the initiative, Ms. Toh Su Mei, the Chief Executive Officer of ANEXT Bank said: “With our secure banking capabilities and first-hand knowledge on what it takes to do business digitally, ANEXT Bank is well positioned to help partners unlock more growth opportunities by enabling access to financing to SMEs on their platforms. At the same time, industry specialists are domain experts in their respective fields and they can provide deep insights into the challenges and needs of SMEs. Together, we can create unique use cases and solve financing pain points for SMEs at scale.”

FinTech company IN Financial Technologies and Business Process Management provider Bizmann System (“Batman”) are among the first to take part in the program. The two partners combined are serving close to 15,000 SMEs.

“We are always looking for ways to value-add our offerings, thus the collaboration with ANEXT Bank to enhance our financing capabilities on our platform is a truly synergistic partnership. Our customers, most of whom are distributors and wholesalers in the traditional and new value chain will benefit from embedded financing with the use of technologies. Furthermore, working with ANEXT Bank to implement the collaboration in a phased approach allows us to innovate as a Superplatform without exorbitant tech integration costs. This ability to avail financing on our platforms will be a key competitive advantage as we deepen our presence in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia,” said Mr. Eldwin Wong, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, IN Financial Technologies.

“As more SMEs are operating their businesses online, the process has to be holistic and seamless. Trade transactions are vital for B2Bs, so being able to avail of financing on our platform reinforces our value proposition and allows us to prepare for market expansions in China, ASEAN, and Australia more confidently. With our collaboration with ANEXT Bank, SMEs on Batman will be able to tap into financing specific to their needs based on transactional data points, to pay off invoices generated on our platform. The entire process is intuitive, effortless, and most of all accessible,” said Mr. Ken Loke, Chief Executive Officer, Bizmann System (S) Pte Ltd.

As part of the ANEXT Programme for Industry Specialists launch, ANEXT Bank provided a preview of the ANEXT Business Loan to complement its existing ANEXT Business Account.

The NEXT Business Loan is a fuss-free and flexible unsecured financing solution with two repayment options – “pay-per-use” and “pay monthly” – available at competitive rates. The minimum loan amount available starts at S$5,000. SMEs keen to get a preview of the ANEXT Business Loan can register their interests.

Adopting an open and collaborative approach, ANEXT Bank believes in joining hands with industry partners and public sector agencies to provide SMEs with financial services that are simpler, safer, and more rewarding. In June this year, ANEXT Bank signed a 2-year MoU with Proxtera to transform and enable holistic cross-border trade among SMEs and businesses by making marketplaces efficient and discoverable globally, with embedded financing, fulfillment services, and SME empowerment.

Source: Businesswire