You may consider your business or business idea as bankable. Hence, the reason why you spend a good amount of time and resources finding a financier. Now imagine spending your valuable time browsing the internet in search of alternative investment solutions, then finding PUTTRU but being turned away because you are not able to submit a few documents for our preliminary evaluation. This is what many owners with seemingly bankable businesses have gone through.
Bankable transactions are funding requests from energy companies that meet the funding requirements of at least one of PUTTRU registered financiers.
The purpose of this article is to save you time. We will share with you some of the preliminary questions and documentations that we use to gauge your bankability and, hence, our capacity to provide our services. Also, we will be addressing some frequently asked questions (FAQ).
PUTTRU’s role in creating bankable transactions
Firstly, it is important to note that PUTTRU’s role is mainly a facilitatory one. What this means is that we do the groundwork that gets you through the door to start engaging with financial institutions (e.g., regional and commercial banks) and other actors in the ecosystem.
The value of our service to energy companies is that:
- Our pipeline of bankable transactions support companies that have been left behind due to the imperfections in the market, and
- Thus, reduce the number of energy companies unserved by African financial markets.
Secondly, it is important to note that financial transactions do not take place on our platform. What the PUTTRU platform does is to digitalize the environment in which funding transactions are originated, negotiated and agreed on, improving efficiency through tech.
How we get to bankable transactions
Bankable transactions are funding requests from energy companies that meet the funding requirements of at least one of PUTTRU registered financiers.
We are continuously building strategic partnerships with regional banks and others. These regional banks may finance a company directly or on-lend through commercial banks. What we have done for energy companies is to harmonize the basic due diligence requirements of financiers. Also, we liaise directly with financiers to address information asymmetry between what companies think financiers want and what these financiers actually want.
Therefore, when we receive an enquiry from you, we will send a questionnaire which includes if you have the following documents handy:
- Company registration certificate/certificate of incorporation.
- Memorandum and Articles of Association and copies of management and individual shareholders.
- Audited financial statement (for 3 consecutive years at least)
- Business Plan/ Feasibility studies, if applicable.
- Financial model explaining how funds will be used and repaid.
These are only necessary for preliminary evaluations and if you pass this stage we may then progress with the main due diligence work.
The PUTTRU platform digitalizes the environment in which funding transactions are originated, negotiated and agreed on…
“I do not have all the documentations, what then?”
While majority of the business owners that approach us can provide 1 and 2, many of them drop-off due to 3, 4 and 5. However, these documentations are fundamental to ascertain if the business is creditworthy, to estimate if at all the business can take on more debt and, if so, how much debt, etc.
This does not mean the end of the road if business owners are willing to engage the necessary expertise to address this gap. If so, we will introduce the company to some of our top-notch third party management consultants. The business owner remains in control, choosing the consultant to work with and supervising the work.
“My business is new, but we can provide collateral”
We are not currently active in the startup space as the financiers we work with look at for track records. This could change, however, if we have financiers that are interested in startups.
“What comes after preliminary evaluation?”
After the preliminary evaluation comes the due diligence background checks.
For those who have passed the preliminary evaluation they may immediately be granted access to the digital platform if they pass our due diligence background checks. This is known as the Immediate Release subscription option.
The other two subscription options are Expert Review and More Exposure and Premium Services. It is important to note that business owners that subscribe to Expert Review and More Exposure and Premium Services appear with a unique badge to financiers on the platform that subscribe to Selective Offers and More Connections.
“Are financiers vetted too?”
The short answer to this is ‘Yes’. The reason we do this is to ensure that those who do gain access to the platform are ready to do business, whether they are energy companies or financiers.
