Last year, Lazada teamed up with small businesses financing platform, Finaxar, to offer credit lines to small and medium business on its platform. Poignant said the next step could be more financing products to make loans more efficient.
“Through our data, we will be able more precisely assess the loans. So I think, in a way, the future is to be more efficient, faster and bigger, that’s one part,” Poignant said. “Second part (is), we will venture in other parts of financing. For example, something which is very, I think, promising, is trade financing across countries which we will also look into.”
Trade financing takes place between exporters, who seek payments for their goods, and importers, who have to pay for the products they order. In conventional trading, a bank provides a letter of credit to the exporter on behalf of the importer, and the money is paid upon delivery of the goods.
It’s an expensive process, particularly for smaller businesses — but it could be a multi-billion dollar opportunity for Lazada.
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