Glovo, a multi-category app that links consumers with Nigerian businesses and riders, has announced a strategic agreement with Salad Africa, a fintech that offers embedded lending infrastructure to B2B marketplaces and tech-enabled SMEs.
Salad Africa will fuel a first-of-its-kind SME financing initiative through this agreement, giving qualified Glovo partners access to working cash at more affordable rates and easier-to-access terms than traditional banks. Within the Glovo ecosystem, the objective is to assist companies in growing more quickly, introducing new goods, and generating more income. With the help of real-time sales data from the Glovo app, qualified partners on the Glovo platform will be able to request loans with amounts ranging from ₦50,000 to over ₦100 million.
To be eligible, merchants need to meet the performance and operational requirements and have been active on Glovo for a minimum of three months. Faster, more equitable, and more precise lending decisions are guaranteed by this data-driven methodology. Following the identification of qualified partners, they will be notified of the application procedures and Know Your Business (KYB) criteria.
Following completion and approval of the KYB, funds will be disbursed directly, with repayments made easily as a percentage of future sales. The Glovo platform will handle all processing. This program provides loans without collateral, in contrast to traditional financial institutions, and evaluates applicants’ eligibility and creditworthiness based on real-time sales data from the Glovo app.
The Glovo Local program, which is Glovo’s worldwide initiative to enable SMEs to prosper in the digital economy, includes this program as one of its components. Glovo Local gives SMEs—which account for 90% of stores and eateries on the Glovo app in 23 countries—access to resources and assistance like marketing, order administration, platform exposure, training, and easy financial help.
Continuing, Glovo is fostering growth, stimulating local economies, and supporting inclusive, sustainable enterprises as the first industry player in Europe, Africa, and Central Asia to support SMEs in this manner. The collaboration between Glovo and Salad Africa is a significant advancement in providing small businesses with the tools they require to expand effectively and sustainably.
Glovo Nigeria’s Head of Commercial, Kolawole Adeniyi, commented on the collaboration, saying: “At Glovo, we’re constantly looking for ways to empower our partners and support their growth journeys. Through this initiative, we’re providing access to much-needed working capital directly within our ecosystem, making it easier and faster for our partners to scale. This partnership with Salad Africa is a game-changer—it ensures our merchants can unlock new opportunities without traditional barriers.”
In addition, Chief Executive Officer Chikodi Ukaiwe of Salad Africa stated: “Supporting local businesses is at the heart of everything we do at Salad, so we’re thrilled to partner with Glovo to provide small and medium-sized restaurants with fast, fit-for-purpose financing to meet growing demand and scale their operations. Embedded finance is unlocking new channels of credit that simply weren’t available before, and we’re proud to be making access to capital more seamless and timely for Glovo’s network of restaurants.”
As the sole provider of this kind of funding to SMEs at the moment, Glovo is reaffirming its dedication to supporting local companies’ expansion, BrandSpur business and economy news desk reports.
By eliminating the typical obstacles that small and medium-sized enterprises encounter when trying to obtain conventional financing, Glovo and Salad Africa are promoting financial inclusion, stimulating local economies, and aiding in the digital transformation of companies throughout Nigeria. Since its founding, Salad Africa has helped over 1,500 SMEs sustainably grow their businesses and documented $1.5M in credit-unlocked value. Salad is working to increase funding availability for African SMBs.
