This article was first published on Digital News Asia

FUNDING Societies has announced the launch of FS Bolt - a mobile application to provide flexible working capital loans for local SMEs.

Complementing the government’s financing programmes for SMEs, FS Bolt offers loans with quantum up to S$20,000 (US$14,073) for companies incorporated in Singapore. FS Bolt is available on both iOS and Android devices.

At the Singapore Budget 2016, the government introduced “SME Working Capital Loans” to support SMEs with financing.

The “SME Working Capital Loans” is a loan scheme provided under SPRING, an agency under the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry.

How FS Bolt works

The application process takes two minutes to complete. An automated credit assessment process enables decision time of two hours and disbursement within 24 hours – making FS Bolt the quickest source of working capital loans in Singapore.

FS Bolt also provides loan tenor flexibility - It charges no fees for early repayment, atypical of financial products in the market. With this feature, borrowers only pay interest while using the funds and are encouraged to repay their loan as soon as their finances permit.

Addressing the underbanked SME concerns

SMEs face many hurdles when seeking financing as they often lack credit history, collateral, and sophisticated financial documents required by most loan products. FS Bolt alleviates such issues by offering a credit product specifically targeted to answer SME needs.

FS Bolt also incorporates automation and highly intelligent systems to include non-traditional datasets into the firm’s credit assessment processes.

“Funding Societies’ vision is to help small businesses. Over the last year and a half, borrowers have indicated that they often need funds to tide over short periods of finance-related issues,” said Funding Societies co-founder Kelvin Teo.

“The FS Bolt app was created to address these concerns. SME owners get peace of mind from the quick credit decision and they can opt to repay early without charges if they don't need it anymore.”

Funding Societies currently also provides bigger, longer-term SME loans and invoice financing services with quantum up to S$1 million.

As the firm’s most recent innovation, FS Bolt expands the firm’s offerings and shows Funding Societies’ continued commitment to serve the Singapore SME sector by improving credit availability.