Qardus is an ethical & Sharia-compliant financing platform for social impact SMEs and investors.
Business overview
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Social media | |
| Website | www.qardus.com/ |
| Sectors | Finance & Payments Digital Mixed B2B/B2C |
| Company number | 12181387 |
| Incorporation date | 30 Aug 2019 |
Business highlights
- Over £250k in financing to SMEs since July 2020 launch.
- Growing list of investors with £3.5k avg. ticket size.
- Maintained a 100% track record and 0% default rate to date.
- Innovative interest-free business financing for SMEs.
Key features
Idea
Introduction
Interest-free (Sharia-compliant) structures are used to offer banking and financial services to over 1.8 billion Muslims globally. This is primarily due to prohibitions on the payment and receiving of interest in their faith. In the UK, this 3.8 million strong community (25 million in Europe) is massively underserved, especially when it comes to business financing options for SMEs as well as fixed income products for investors.
Qardus is one of the UK's first ethical & Sharia-compliant business financing marketplaces. We offer up to £200,000 in innovative interest-free business financing to eligible SMEs for tenors of up to 36 months.
We serve businesses that make a positive impact on society and the environment. In this economic climate, the SMEs that our investors have financed need to have resilient business models and so far our platform has reflected this.
Qardus is FCA approved as an authorised representative & open to everyone irrespective of their faith & belief.
Our vision is to be the first Islamic SME challenger bank globally.
Substantial accomplishments to date
1) FCA approved as an appointed representative, VC backed and launched the platform in July 2020 during the pandemic.
2) Over £250k in financing provided to some high social impact SMEs during the pandemic. Funded the last deal in record time.
3) Average projected net returns of 13.4% per year for investors on our platform so far.
4) More that 550 users since inception. Suggests that investors identify with our message and are keen to generate financial returns as well as make a positive social impact.
5) Stellar core team with substantial experience in this space.
6) Maintained a 100% track record and 0% default rate to date.
7) No marketing expenses incurred in closing the first deals on the platform.
8) Growing list of investors with a £3,500 average ticket size per investor so far.
9) Currently building partnerships for user growth on both ends of the marketplace.
10) For banks, digitizing the credit journey is crucial to their revenue growth & success. We are continuously improving the average “time to decision” for SMEs on our platform & developing the SME credit-decision engine that will power our future.
11) We have been able to achieve all of the above using only £120k of pre-seed funding obtained in October 2019.
12) Featured in the press including in Sifted, Islamic Finance News, Peer-to-Peer Finance News, Fintech Futures amongst others.
Monetisation strategy
Current Revenue Stream
We charge SMEs an arrangement fee of up to 7% of funds raised on our platform. These are deducted from the proceeds before drawdown by the business. On our last couple of deals we charged 5% and 6% respectively.
Administration fee of up to 15% of arrears on late payments.
Future Revenue Stream
In addition to the SME arrangement fee highlighted above our fees going forwards would include:
- Servicing fees for monitoring and servicing the SME financing facilities on our platform.
- Technology licensing fees for use of our proprietary technology by financial institutions across the globe.
- Banking fees once we become an SME challenger bank.
Use of proceeds
The breakdown of how the funds will be spent is as follows:
- 30% of the funds will be spent on marketing costs for acquiring SMEs & investors on the platform.
- 60% of the funds will be spent on growing our team by an additional 5 members in order accelerate our product road map.
- 10% of the funds will be spent on costs associated with obtaining additional licenses that will allow us to expand our service offering for SMEs.
Key Information
Share Classes
The company currently has two classes of shares, A Ordinary and Ordinary. All investors in this round, including Seedrs investors, will be receiving A Ordinary shares.
On a return of capital as a result of winding up of the Company, proceeds will be distributed to all shareholders pro rata as if all shares were one class.
In the event of an exit, the proceeds will be paid in the following order:
1) Ordinary A shareholders will receive 99.999% of the issue price paid per Ordinary A shares and Ordinary shareholders will receive 0.001% of the issue price paid per ordinary share.
2) Ordinary shareholders will then receive a catch up amount per Ordinary share equal to the highest amount paid up on each Ordinary A share
3) The balance will then be distributed to all shareholders pro rata as if all shares were of one class.
Debt
A Bounce Back loan of £50,000, interest-free for 12 months, and 2.5% thereafter. This is to be repaid over 60 monthly instalments starting in May 2021.
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