Financiers who place their entrepreneurs at the centre of everything they do understand that the most important thing to do is to be on the ground with the business owners who are facing the challenges that they are trying to solve. This is the only way you will obtain an intimate knowledge of your customer.
“Exhibiting today was important for us,” says Kaylin Govender, Investment Officer at Business Partners, about the 2025 edition of the SME Funding Summit. “We use this platform to connect with South African SMMEs. Attending the Funding Summit means that we are marketing our service to the audience that we want to reach.”
What You Want in a Business Partner
Business Partners is a financial institution that is invested in seeing business owners succeed. With a track record of over three decades, and have unlocked business value in over 71 000 business finance transactions. To date, they’ve approved more than R20 billion in finance solutions to established entrepreneurs.
“We provide finance ranging from R250 000 to R50 million to established entrepreneurs with a viable formal business,” Govender elaborates. “We tailor our finance to meet your business’s unique needs and negotiate pricing and repayment terms with you. We assess your business for viability and engage with you to understand your business’s potential. We don’t just look at security as demonstrated by your financials.”
He notes that this is what makes them in particular a viable option for alternative financing for South African small to medium-sized enterprises. What’s more, the fact that they don’t need to adhere to the same legislation as banks means that they are able to take more risks in funding entrepreneurs that traditional lenders may need to say no to.
Rubbing Shoulders And Shaking Hands
One characteristic of in-person events clearly stands out to the Business Partner team: Attending live events such as the SME Funding Summit gives entrepreneurs and funders the opportunity to shake hands and have meaningful conversations.
“We want to showcase ourselves, but we also want to hear what the SMMEs think,” he notes. “This assists us in providing a better product offering to the market.
“It is always important to know what is on the ground so we can fit the solution. We might be sitting up there [high in corporate offices] thinking that we have a product, but then on the ground, there is a different problem. So if we are here, servicing and talking to SMEs, we understand exactly what they need. We take this information back to the office, restructure the products and offer the market a solution that speaks to this actual need.
An Offering that Makes a Difference
Within Business Partner’s large offering, SMEs can find assistance that meets their needs. Not only does this mean the business finance mentioned earlier, but also non-financial support.
Business finance can be used for expansion, working capital, equipment, takeovers, property, franchises, property finance for owner-occupied businesses, revamps, or management buy-outs.
Asset finance is another product that entrepreneurs can look into. The finance can be used to purchase business equipment, such as manufacturing or engineering equipment.
Additionally, short-term financing can be used as working capital to finance important transactions and projects.
Among the non-financial support that Business Partners provides is the Technical Assistance Programme, implemented with the support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), to upskill business owners, as well as the Mentorship Support Service. This solution links senior business and professional people with business owners in a mentorship relationship aimed at sharing business expertise, technical skills, and wisdom and assists business owners to improve the efficiency, profitability, and growth of their businesses.
