Linked Finance has introduced a new ‘Recharge SMEs’ loan to provide hospitality businesses with up to €50,000 to help reopen, restock and rehire as pandemic restrictions are eased.
The term of the Recharge loan is 13 months, with no repayment in the first month. It’s open to pubs, restaurants, accommodation providers, and cafés.
Earlier this year Linked Finance became the first non-bank lender to offer loans through the Credit Guarantee Scheme, and has now been awarded a second tranche of €5m by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, bringing the total it has available under the scheme to €15m.
Chief executive Niall O’Grady (pictured) said: “Being allocated a second tranche demonstrates the success of alternative lenders participating in the scheme, and shows the improving range of options there are for businesses looking to access finance fast and efficiently in a seamless online process.
“Our new Recharge SMEs loan will allow companies to access up to €50,000 to support their immediate needs and help them to get back trading in what we hope will be a bumper summer for the industry.”
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The lender generally offers loans up to €250,000 for terms of six months to five years at interest rates from 4.75%, depending on the loan term and credit grading of the borrower.
Under the terms of the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme, applicants also pay an additional risk premium charge. This premium ranges from 0.15% for a one-year loan up to 0.68% for a 6-year loan.
A regular Linked Finance borrower who has availed of a new loan through the CCGS is Tara Slevin Group, a distributor of branded promotional products.
CEO Eddie Slevin commented: "Linked Finance was our chosen lender to benefit from the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme, due to its ability to deliver quick decisions through a simple application process. This delivery has proved vital to our business when we needed to scale-up and replenish stock to meet a spike in customer demand and to grow our presence online."
The company says that other borrowers include The Agile Executive, Lolly & Cooks, and Murphy’s Ice Cream.
Linked Finance claims to operate the “fastest business loan application around”, at an average of two minutes, with the fastest completion so far being 38 seconds. You can try to beat that here.
