Smartfundit.com, the world's first online business finance marketplace today announced the launch of the second version of its marketplace, initially launched in 2006.
Version 2.0 will build on the success of its current platform which has generated over $1billion of finance demand from over 4000 businesses to date. The user interface and related back-office services will include additional functionality and features to meet the increasing demand for transparent and flexible working practices within the business-to-business finance market, ultimately providing improved funding accessibility for businesses.
Smartfundit.com's business objective is to democratise business funding, enabling transparency within a traditionally complex and hierarchical industry. Acknowledging the rapid adoption of online marketplaces, comparison and auction websites in the consumer space; smartfundit.com transposes these user experiences to the business community. The new website takes the Web 2.0 functionality that individuals have become accustomed to within their personal lives, marrying this to the needs of a funder, vendor or business looking to provide or find finance.
For a business looking to find finance, additional functionality includes the ability to specify multiple asset classes increasing the funding options available . Businesses can apply for technology funding and, almost immediately, receive a list of those institutions willing to provide finance based on the audited data, cutting down the time traditionally taken from days to seconds.
Similarly, those organisations looking to provide finance to businesses can utilise the enhanced smartfundit.com functionality to hone their customer segmentation strategy, balancing their portfolio and ultimately reducing risk. Building on the functionality available in the current version, lenders have increased market visibility through sophisticated reporting tools, can change their lending criteria dynamically and streamline the lending process in line with internal review cycles. Ultimately this reduces the time and cost for lenders to enter identified markets and accessess pre-filtered funding prospects to virtually zero.
Finally for the vendor community, this launch provides a vital tool in empowering sales teams, the partner and channel environment. By providing mechanisms to access funding, pre-approve prospects for credit and maintain flexible pricing models, vendors can maximise their partner, channel and customer relationships.
Justin Floyd, CEO and Founder of smartfundit.com comments on the launch: "Version 2 has been designed to meet the needs of this fast growing industry and to provide a framework for our future expansion plans. Our new website incorporates feedback from our community, to improve the user experience, further reducing the time, risk and effort associated with providing and finding of business finance."
This successful launch kicks off a year of ambitious growth plans for smartfundit.com. April will see the site open for business in the USA, where 11 large funding bodies are already signed up to the marketplace.
Further expansion into France and Germany is planned for late 2009, satisfying the demand for changes to the structure of business financing to better fit with the dynamic nature of today's economic environment.