US-based Biz2Credit enters Indian market

US-based online portal Biz2Credit.com, which provides small business loans, has launched an Indian website, which looks to cater to capital requirements of small businesses in the Indian market.

The company was founded in 2007 in the financial services space in the US by Indian born entrepreneurs, Ramit Arora and Rohit Arora. It claims to connect small businesses with lenders and service providers to get means to grow their enterprises. The website matches small businesses with credit solutions based on online profiles.

Talking to exchange4media about the launch in the Indian market, Ramit Arora, President, Biz2Credit, said, “India is an important demographic for us. It has the world’s second largest population and contains countless small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), which contribute more than 60 per cent to the Indian economy.”

The target audience of the finance portal is small and medium businesses. Arora explained, “The target audience is small and medium enterprises in India with revenues above Rs 25 lakh. Basically, we are trying to address the knowledge-gap and the communication gap that SMEs in India are facing. We are attempting to build that gap with our technology.”

“SMEs are the drivers of innovation and competition in the economy, and lack of sufficient capital may hamper the growth process. Biz2Credit demystifies and streamlines the loan application process, saves entrepreneurs time, and finds the best deals on loans, lines of credit and other forms of financing,” he further said.

The company has tied up with Magna Bank and Saraswat Bank and is also in talks with a few other banks. The portal claims to have enabled more than 6,000 small business owners in the US to secure $400 million in funding.

Talking about the expectations from the Indian market, Arora said, “We are not expecting a very fast growth. It will be a slow and steady movement ranking up. We will have to figure out what programmes work the best and create tools and programmes to cater to different sections of the SMEs and create access to financing and capital for them.”

The portal is focusing heavily on online marketing strategies for its promotion in India.Biz2Credit has allocated about 30-40 per cent of its spends, which amounts to around Rs 8-10 lakh a month, for online activities. Arora said, “We are engaged in a lot of online activities for our promotion and are also engaged in a lot of PR activities to create buzz about our portal. To create awareness, we will also be engaging in workshops around the country. Within online marketing, we will be looking at engaging in a combination of search advertising and social media marketing.”