The Chinese ecommerce company is partnering online finance company iwoca and Ezbob, which is owned by Orange Money and bought Wonga’s small business lending division last month.
The partnership aims at helping small British businesses that struggle to meet the heavy upfront payments demanded by Asian suppliers.
The initiative comes shortly after the Chinese group teamed up with Lending Club, the US peer-to-peer lender, to provide loans to small business customers.
Alibaba.com will initially introduce borrowers to lenders through its e-credit line and over time it considers supplying data to the lenders to help them build and refine their risk models.
Alibaba.com provides a business-to-business market for about 40 industries supplying anything from automotive parts to cosmetics.
Companies will be able to borrow as much as GBP 50,000 for up to six months through iwoca at interest rates of 1.5-2 % a month. Ezbob will charge interest starting at 0.75 % to extend between GBP 50,000 and GBP 120,000 in credit for up to 15 months to Alibaba.com customers.
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