The end of 2020 is in sight, time for a look back at this special year. A year with challenges for many entrepreneurs. Sectors have been hit hard by the corona crisis, and that has an impact on business operations. Government support measures help companies through this period, combined with flexibility from lenders when it comes to repaying existing financing. After all: Financing is of great importance to most companies. It helps companies grow or bridge difficult periods.
Topicus' Fyndoo platform is at the heart of the business financing chain. The most important players in the business financing market use Fyndoo Advise to support them in substantiating and preparing financing applications. Based on data from these funding applications and developments on the platform, we share a number of facts in this article and look ahead.
In 2019 we started with the financing application module in Fyndoo Advise. "We are incredibly proud of the fact that more than 100 million in financing has been requested through our platform this year!", says Michel Brinkhuis of Topicus.
Financing in 2020
Funding is always requested for a specific purpose. Financing a business premises for own use was the most common goal this year. After that, entrepreneurs mainly invested in growth and expansion, followed by company assets. To finance such a goal, there is a choice of different forms of financing.
Commercial mortgages turned out to be by far the most popular, when it comes to requested exposure and in numbers. Not so strange: a business property is the largest asset on the balance sheet for many entrepreneurs. The commercial mortgage on the platform accounted for approximately one third of the total exposure requested. A regular loan, for example for financing working capital or the purchase of a business asset, is in second place. About ten percent of the financing applications were made for the application for a current account.
Financing of accounts receivable and financing for research and development were the least popular forms: less than one percent of the requested exposure is linked to one of these two goals.
"Although the Dutch financing landscape has more and more providers, the choice was mainly for financing from the bank. On the Fyndoo platform, 25% of the applications this year went to non-bank financiers," says Brinkhuis. This includes specialist lease parties or factoring companies. In this respect, approximately twice as many lease applications as factoring applications were submitted.
Commercial mortgages are not only the frontrunner in absolute numbers in 2020. The median financing for a commercial property was around 750,000 euros. For financing applications for growth and expansion, this was a lot lower, namely at 500,000 euros. For working capital financing, the median was at the same level.
Developments
The financing landscape is digitizing. This year for the first time direct links were made with financiers. When an application is sent from Fyndoo Advise, it immediately ends up in the lender's processing system. This means that no data needs to be retyped. That ensures more efficiency. A lender has to spend less time assessing the application, and can therefore provide the customer with a quicker answer about the options.
In the last months of 2020 there is a clear peak in the financing of commercial properties. The imminent increase in the transfer tax for investment properties appears to be related to this. In addition, based on the experiences of our affiliated advisors, it turned out that finding working capital, especially with regard to the high(er) tickets, was still quite difficult in 2020. This may be due to the limited supply. An alternative route was often chosen for this: by taking out a commercial mortgage on commercial premises that were not financed, additional liquidity could still be created; a phenomenon that is also referred to as 'fresh money' by banks.
The expectation for 2021 is that there will be more demand for working capital and growth financing. Entrepreneurs will want to quickly put the corona crisis behind them, and use financing to get their business back on track.