CreditEnable, a credit marketplace for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), announced its partnership with the NITI Aayog-backed Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) on Monday. The collaboration aims to assist women entrepreneurs in improving their credit profiles and securing better business loans.
As part of the initiative, CreditEnable will provide its Shine tool to women entrepreneurs on WEP. The tool will analyze the financial health of their businesses and offer digital coaching to help manage finances effectively.
The program is designed to help women entrepreneurs secure financing on favorable terms by offering an overview of their credit scores, banking, and GST (Goods and Services Tax) data, thereby improving their eligibility for business loans.
According to CreditEnable, only 10 per cent of SME loan applications in India are successful, with women entrepreneurs facing even greater difficulties in accessing formal finance.
“By providing them with the tools and resources they need to understand and improve their credit health, and directly facilitating access to finance for them, we are opening doors to new opportunities for their businesses to thrive,” said Nadia Sood, CEO & Founder of CreditEnable.
CreditEnable collaborates with over 40 blue-chip pan-India lenders, including public and private banks, small finance banks, and NBFCs, to help SMEs access credit.
Speaking on the partnership, NITI Aayog’s Principal Economic Advisor Anna Roy said the Shine tool will equip women entrepreneurs with the financial knowledge and creditworthiness necessary to become stronger and more competitive business leaders.
Recently, NITI Aayog, in partnership with credit bureau TransUnion CIBIL, launched the Seher initiative to enhance the financial literacy and business skills of women entrepreneurs.
According to TransUnion CIBIL, business loan demand by women increased more than 3.9x between FY2019 and FY2024, with a 10 per cent increase in the number of women borrowers. As of March 2024, women constituted 38 per cent of the 1.5 crore borrowers with live business loans.