• Finaxar + Visa. Reinventing business financing with technology

    Visa helped Finaxar create an online solution for SMEs that need a fast and secure way to pay, manage expenses, and get working capital.

Finaxar’s mission

In Southeast Asia, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) represent about 40%1 of the region’s gross domestic product. And you might think, given their role in driving the economy, that SMEs wouldn’t have trouble securing financing. Instead, the 39 million2 SMEs in Southeast Asia find themselves in difficult spot: financial institutions can have a difficult time evaluating a business that lacks a lengthy track record. But what institutions overlooked, Finaxar saw as an untapped opportunity. 

They could solve a problem that had plagued SMEs for decades. By combining innovative technology – and deep expertise in understanding how SMEs function – they could deliver access to working capital quickly by using an online platform. 

SMEs account for over 70% Southeast Asia’s employment. We truly believe that by solving a key problem for these SMEs we are making a huge impact on society. We can actually create more jobs and improve people’s lives and society in general.

   – Vihang Patel, Cofounder and CEO, Finaxar

How Visa helped Finaxar

Finaxar focuses mainly on solving the working capital issues of small and medium businesses in Southeast Asia. And as a lot of these SMEs were young and growing rapidly, traditional financing options could hamper their ability to respond to opportunities that often required a fast infusion of capital. 

Finaxar simplified acquiring capital for SMEs with an online service, but in order to make using that newly acquired capital easy, they turned to Visa because it offered a ready-made infrastructure.

More and more businesses are interconnected in some form and Visa being an enabler for this entire network means they’re a vital partner for us to achieve our goals.

– Vihang Patel, Cofounder and CEO, Finaxar

Finaxar by the numbers

4.

countries where Finaxar currently operates in Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Malaysia.3

24 hrs.

With advanced technology, Finaxar can approve a loan in as fast as 24 hours.3

500K.

invoices processed across thousands of businesses to date through Finaxar’s system.3

Visa solutions and services used by Finaxar

Finaxar uses Visa products and programmes to help deliver on their business goals and participated – and won – Visa’s Everywhere Initiative’s Singapore programme in 2019.

Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI)

Finaxar saw the VEI as an opportunity to benchmark their ideas and their products against other fintechs. This gave them the opportunity to test their ideas with a lot of people and experts that wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.

Visa Commercial Prepaid

Finaxar worked with Visa to launch FXR commercial cards in Singapore. The FXR Visa card is a commercial prepaid card funded through a credit line offered by Finaxar to their customers. They plan to launch the cards in additional markets in the near future.

Fintech Fast Track

Finaxar joined the Fintech Fast Track Programme to accelerate the issuance of their Commercial Prepaid card solution. The Visa Fintech Fast Track programme is one part of a broader Visa strategy to support fintechs’ growth and development globally. 

Learn about Fintech Fast Track Programme

One of the things that was interesting about this partnership was that while we were learning and growing, Visa was also learning and growing. This two-way conversation was extremely fulfilling and Visa’s values and principles are aligned with how we function as a company.

    – Vihang Patel, Cofounder and CEO, Finaxar

* Screen images for illustration purposes

1 SME Policy Index – ASEAN 2018 (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)

2 McKinsey Global Institute – Digital Finance for All: Powering Inclusive Growth in Emerging Economies (2016)

3 Source: Finaxar

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