In cooperation with Hamburg-based Varengold Bank, Berlin fintech Kapilendo is now offering small and medium-sized enterprises the first fully digital application process for instant loans (GER: Schnellkredite) offered by KfW, a German stateowned development bank based in Frankfurt, Varengold announced today. German companies with more than ten employees can apply via www.kapilen.do/kfw-schnellkredit.
The loans will be 100% guaranteed by the German Federal Government. Innovative API services by SCHUFA, the largest German credit bureau, ensure that the eligibility verification process and associated compliance checks can be conducted digitally. By connecting a digital platform to this aid program, Kapilendo and Varengold Bank have created an urgently needed unbureaucratic process from application to payout., according to Varengold.
“We have processed an initial batch of applications, the first of which have already been approved by KfW. Together with Varengold Bank, and with excellent support from KfW, we have managed to provide the German “Mittelstand” with a straightforward and digital access to the KfW instant loan programme. This is good news particularly for those companies which have difficulties accessing this programme because they lack a long-standing credit relationship with their principal bank,” Christopher Grätz, co-founder and CEO of Kapilendo AG, said.
Addressing Covid-19 challenges
“KfW instant loan scheme is an aid program which many small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany have been waiting for. The Federal Government and the KfW have taken exactly the right step. In the current situation it was imperative to create a straightforward and digital access to these instant loans, which we have managed to achieve in cooperation with Varengold Bank,” Grätz added.
“Providing companies with quick and easy access to capital is most definitely part of Varengold Bank’s mission. We are thus really pleased to work with Kapilendo in these Page 2 of 3 challenging times by siding with small and medium-sized enterprises, who are facing huge challenges through no fault of their own, and offering them instant, unbureaucratic support,” Frank Otten, member of Varengold Bank’s board of managing directors, said.
KfW instant loans
Following a decision by the ‘Corona cabinet’ on April 6, 2020, KfW has been offering German companies with more than ten employees instant loans (GER: Schnellkredite) of up to EUR 800,000 since April 15, 2020. These loans are 100% guaranteed by the German Federal Government. The Government has thereby launched an effective scheme to provide broad-based liquidity support to SMEs. The loans are granted in accordance with the ‘Hausbankprizip’’ (i.e. the assumption that a customer conducts a large part of their financial transactions with their principal bank) through commercial banks, savings banks, and cooperative banks. However, only 7,397 instant loans had been approved by May 18, 2020.
Varengold Bank
AG Varengold Bank is a German financial institution founded in 1995 and granted a full banking licence in 2013. In addition to its head office in Hamburg, the bank has presences in London and Sofia. Core business areas are marketplace banking and commercial banking. Within marketplace banking, the focus is on the cooperation with European fintechs, especially lending platforms. Varengold Bank’s service portfolio includes funding, debt and equity capital markets products, fronting services for products subject to banking licence requirements and international payment services.
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