SMRT and Validus Capital Supports Local SMEs through Vendor Growth Financing
In a first-of-its-kind collaboration for SMRT, the company has partnered Validus Capital, Singapore’s largest SME Financing platform, to help its SME vendors access financing more easily.
SMEs in Singapore employ 70% of the Singaporean workforce and contribute to 50% of Singapore’s GDP. However, most SMEs do not receive timely financing due to their lack of collateral.
Under the SMRT-Validus partnership, over 1,000 SMEs working with SMRT can access pre-approved financing through Validus’ platform in 24 hours, without the need to pledge any collateral.
Regardless of its size, an SME’s track record and strong working relationship with SMRT help them to be eligible for pre-approved growth financing loans with bank-like rates from Validus. The social impact of this financing is hugely positive, creating more jobs and increasing revenues for the SME vendors and suppliers of SMRT. Additionally, it eliminates cash-flow problems that may hamper project execution and delivery.
The collaboration required both companies to work closely together across the Procurement, Finance and Accounting, Technology and Data Analytics teams. With Momentum (the Corporate Venture arm of SMRT) leading the innovation drive, the 12-month pilot was a success due to the high acceptance rate of SMRT’s SME vendors who could access the financing they need to grow their businesses.
