ANEXT Bank Launches New Industry Initiative to Scale Financial Inclusion for SMEs

  • The ANEXT Programme for Industry Specialists aims to make digital financial services more accessible through embedded financing collaborations
  • IN Financial Technologies and Bizmann System are among the first to join the programme, allowing 15,000 SMEs to seamlessly access financing

SINGAPORE--()--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 ANEXT 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. ANEXT 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 a one-stop access to a more comprehensive suite of services, and to gain a consolidated view on 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 on 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 (“Bizmann”) are among the first to take part in the programme. 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 being 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 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 Bizmann will be able to tap on 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 ANEXT 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 at www.anext.com.sg/get-financing.

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 through making marketplaces efficient and discoverable globally, with embedded financing, fulfillment services and SME empowerment.

About ANEXT Bank

Incorporated in Singapore, ANEXT Bank is one of the two successful applicants to receive the digital wholesale banking licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and focuses on providing innovative and secure digital financial services to local and regional micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to aid their growth and global expansion.

Through continuous technology-driven innovation, ANEXT Bank is dedicated to accelerating fintech development and financial inclusion in Singapore and the region. 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.

ANEXT Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ant Group. Ant Group strives to enable all consumers and small businesses to have equal access to financial and other services through technologies, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, security, Internet of Things, and cloud computing.

For more information on ANEXT Bank, please visit www.ANEXT.com.sg.

About IN Financial Technologies

IN Financial Technologies (INFT) focuses on bringing financial inclusion to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in Southeast Asia by providing embedded finance, payment and lending services, to new and existing value chain players. We are headquartered in Singapore and our subsidiaries IN Fund Pte Ltd ("INFUND") is regulated as a Capital Markets Services ("CMS") Licensee by the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS") and IN Remit Pte Ltd ("INREMIT") is regulated as a standard payment institution by the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS").

About Bizmann System

Bizmann System designs, develops and implements Business Process Management (BPM) products and solutions. We help companies journey into Digitalization to improve office productivity, achieve business agility and redesigning new business models through process innovations and automations. Our aim is to always leverage on process innovation to help companies deploy new business models. In this competitive and ever evolving economy, businesses need to constantly re-innovate themselves to stay ahead and even to stay relevant. Bizmann’s BPM solutions ranging from composite applications to enterprise deployments and SaaS-based software applications are delivered across ASEAN. We work with more than 30 channel partners and integrators within ASEAN.

For more information, visit bizmann.com.

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1 Visit: https://www.anext.com.sg/partner-us

Contacts

Media:
Betty Bai
ANEXT Bank
guzhuang.bb@antgroup.com
+65 9183 9108

Marsha Maung
IN Financial Technologies
maung.marsha@inft.co
Main: +65 6635 5668 I Direct: +60 18-372 2182

Jasmine Tan
Bizmann System (S) Pte Ltd
Jasminetan@bizmann.com
+65 9683 3355

Contacts

Media:
Betty Bai
ANEXT Bank
guzhuang.bb@antgroup.com
+65 9183 9108

Marsha Maung
IN Financial Technologies
maung.marsha@inft.co
Main: +65 6635 5668 I Direct: +60 18-372 2182

Jasmine Tan
Bizmann System (S) Pte Ltd
Jasminetan@bizmann.com
+65 9683 3355