Alibaba’s Lazada Partners With Finaxar To Offer Credit Options To SMEs

Alibaba’s Lazada has announced a partnership with Finaxar, which will offer new credit options for SMEs in Southeast Asia.

Finaxar will offer its services to Lazada sellers in Singapore, with plans to eventually expand to cover other parts of Southeast Asia. The goal is to increase the number of retailers in the region, which boasts 650 million consumers.

In addition to its variety of financial products, Finaxar will also offer a credit line option for Lazada sellers, which can last for up to six months, with up to SG$5,000 – SG$1 million (US$3,650 – US$730,000) available. The service is priced at 0.7-1.5 percent every 30 days and at a rate that is pro-rated.

Finaxar founders Vihang Patel and Sian Tan said that the financial assessment for the credit line will be carried out through a one-click integration with the Lazada seller dashboard, which will send the merchant to Finaxar. After providing information, a credit assessment is delivered to the merchant in under five minutes.

Patel added that Finaxar is currently looking into expanding to two additional markets, which would include launches with Lazada and could happen before the end of 2018.

Alibaba has invested $2 billion on Lazada in an effort to expand outside the Chinese market, with Southeast Asia viewed as the next battlefield for eCommerce. Last year, Alibaba announced that it was spending $1 billion to boost its investment in Lazada, bringing its total stake from 51 percent to 83 percent.

“As a market leader, Lazada has demonstrated its ability to execute and further lead the region in products and services — with the best consumer experience in Southeast Asia — while growing a strong ecosystem that supports small businesses going online,” said Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group. “The eCommerce markets in the region are still relatively untapped, and we see a very positive upward trajectory ahead of us. We will continue to put our resources to work in Southeast Asia through Lazada to capture these growth opportunities.”