We are very pleased to announce that we are launching an operation, called Grow Together, to raise awareness about crowdlending among the greatest number of SMEs. This exceptional campaign is sponsored by Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister of Economy and Finance. With Grow Together, 11 major groups share with SMEs the new way of finding financing by symbolically borrowing €100,000 each on October. AccorHotels, The Adecco Group, Allianz France, Arkéa, Edenred, ENGIE, Iliad, JCDecaux, SUEZ, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Webhelp are these 11 major companies.
Why are they borrowing on October?
💡 To show how major companies have diversified their borrowing and found complements to the banking system. Disintermediation of credit is a reality for them: they have simple and easy access to credit. However, for SMEs, it is still in early stages.
🎁 To allow their SME partners(suppliersand customers) to benefit from special conditions* on October. In concrete terms, each major group gives its SME partners the right to borrow up to €1,000,000 without any fees. The objective is therefore to provide up to €11,000,000 of financing, free of charge, for SMEs.
*Subordinated to the acceptance of their project by October. No fees up to €1m per large group. Beyond that, they will benefit from other special conditions.
Witnessing on a daily basis SMEs’ difficulty to obtain financing
“We note that the main obstacle to the development and innovation of SMEs, particularly in the catering sector, is linked to the difficulty of financing projects, because of delays, administrative difficulties or the amount borrowed. For this reason, Edenred supports October’s initiative.” – Edenred
“Access to certain markets (banking,bonds, etc.) is not always possible for very small and medium-sized businesses. Crowdlending offer these companies a new method of financing in addition to traditional solutions, to finance their growth. As such, we are committed to supporting October’s initiative and this innovative project.” – Iliad
“At JCDecaux, we naturally use diversified sources of financing. It must be said that this is not the case for the SMEs we work with in all the French regions where we have a strong presence. We are therefore pleased to be able to open up new opportunities for these SMEs and to demonstrate to all entrepreneurs that it is possible, with confidence.” – JCDecaux
October’s approach
“Since October 2014, the opening of a breach in the banking monopoly has enabled SMEs to borrow directly from individuals and institutions, in addition to their banks. They now have the same tools at their disposal as large companies. But do so, it’s necessary to know it and dare to use it,” adds Olivier Goy, President of October.
👉 Would you like to give a try to this simple and easy access to financing approach?
I test the eligibility of my SME to an October loan
And on the lenders’ side, what does it represent?
11 major groups – with revenues ranging from 1 billion to more than 100 billion euros – which borrow €100,000 each over 24 months at 2.5% on a crowdlending platform: a first in the industry! But what does that mean for the retail lenders 🤔 ?
- The Grow Together projects are available exclusively for retail lenders: exceptionally, for projects participating in the Grow Together initiative, the fund won’t finance 51% of the amount to enable the greatest number of retail lenders to participate to the projects.100% of the project just for you!
- This is a unique opportunity to lend directly to major companies. Large groups do not usually finance themselves directly from retail lenders: this is a rare opportunity and you can be one of the lucky ones…
- This means more projects for lenders: thanks to Grow Together and to the network of major groups’ SME partners, the number of new projects online will increase in the coming months!