Research by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC) has shown that about 80% of micro small and medium enterprises finance their business from their own sources, while approximately 16% of them use bank loans, SCC reports on its website. The success and speed of recovery from the consequences of the pandemic in the MSME sector will directly depend on the availability of various and favorable sources of financing, says Vidosava Dzagic from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
That is why it is important, she believes, that in addition to bank loans, other types of alternative financing are being developed, such as crowdinvesting.
– The Chamber has recognized the key business challenges of MSMEs. We are helping them to get acquainted with the new way of financing through the Ventu platform, which has recently been developed in Serbia as a new solution – says Dzagic.
For a classic loan, the past is scanned – crowdfunding looks to the future.
Group investment is a process in which companies in a certain period collect money from a large number of individuals who invest in order to achieve a return on investment.
In the case of the Ventu.rs platform, investors give one type of loan, which allows them to return through a fixed interest rate, but also through the so-called bonus tied to the company’s business success.
– It is a method of financing, usually small businesses by a large number of investors, with a relatively small role, through a crowdfunding platform – explains Luka Pejovic, director of BDO Ventures.
Each additional financing option makes it easier for companies to find funds to invest in business growth and development. This, he points out, is especially important in a year when many micro and small companies are coming out of a difficult period with exhausted reserves, poor business results and a poor negotiating position for lending by banks.
– Unlike the loan application, where the focus is on historical business results and collateral, the emphasis in crowdfunding is on the future business and the company’s ability to return money to investors with an adequate return by realizing its own business plan – says Pejovic.
Crowdinvesting has long ceased to be an exotic phenomenon in the world and is slowly becoming commonplace in the financial market.
– The flexibility of the group compared to traditional sources of financing, which often do not have an understanding for the needs of small and medium enterprises, contributed to that – Pejovic estimates, eKapija reports.
