SC Ventures, the innovation, ventures, and fintech investment unit of Standard Chartered, launched a full-stack B2B market place, called SOLV. It is working with the vision to accelerate the Indian economy by solving growth challenges of every micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
The B2B platform offers MSMEs an open and inclusive trade ecosystem across the entire value chain. It will facilitate connections and negotiations with verified suppliers and buyers, provide doorstep pick-up, and delivery of goods along with providing timely and easy access to business. Technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning will be used by the platform to enable MSMEs to do their business with multiple stakeholders. Through a full-stack e-commerce platform, MSMEs can own digital storefronts, access a range of products, optimize inventory, digitize their payments, generate GST compliant invoices, and reconcile accounts. SOLV platform also lets them generate ‘SLOV score’, which can be used as an alternative to credit score by small businesses on the platform to create creditworthiness within the system.
To empower SMEs, SOLV currently operates in more than 20 towns in India. It is planning to expand its reach to 200 towns in 2021. SOLV is looking to expand into other markets beyond India, currently, it has plans to roll out in Kenya and Ghana. Through a ‘buy-now-pay-later’ (BNPL) solution the open network financial providers of SOLV allow invoice financing. It has an integrated supply chain finance program to assist small businesses.
Jiten Arora, Venture Lead, SOLV and Global Head for SME Platforms, SC Ventures, said that financial institutions can help tackle the challenges the small businesses would face while trying to simplify growth in the emerging markets in the post-pandemic environment. Standard Chartered has its presence in India for over 160 years and it is well versed with the Indian economy. He said that SOLV is backed with the global capabilities of the investment bank, and has the potential to create a positive impact on millions of MSMEs to achieve sustainable growth.
He added that with data growing at an exponential rate in the Indian market, the company is advancing into big data and building end-to-end technology-led commerce and financial services solutions. This will be supported by business solutions which will aid in customer onboarding, alternative credit scoring, underwriting digitizing operations, and enhancing the efficiency of supply chains.
