Finsmart: A Crowdfactoring Solution in Peru for SMEs

Alexander Chiu Werner of Finsmart tells us about Immediate liquidity for MSMEs and a great alternative for investors. 

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Alexander Chiu Werner: They are fine, luckily, thanks for asking.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Finsmart.

Alexander Chiu Werner: I’m a Peruvian/German entrepreneur with more than 12 years of experience in digital strategies and business innovation. Author, with David Reyes, of “Revolución.pe: The digital transformation of eleven Peruvian companies” (2018). I have Masters in Global Entrepreneurship (EOI Business School), Masters in Business Administration (URJC), Spain,  Bachelor in communication and advertising (UPC) and former Postgraduate professor in Digital marketing and Digital Transformation.

Along with three other fellows, I founded Finsmart, a Fintech established in Peru that connects Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) with financial liquidity needs and those who want to invest in their accounts receivable (crowdfactoring).

How does Finsmart innovate?

Alexander Chiu Werner: We innovate, offering a fast and seamless experience for SMEs to access liquidity even if they don’t have a credit history. We also give an attractive alternative for investors to gain competitive rates for their money, in Peruvian soles or US dollars. As a consequence, in less than two years, we connected 1,500 SMEs and 4,500 investors, funding more than 50M USD.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Alexander Chiu Werner: We had some sales reduction in the first two months, but we could revert it later. We believe that being a digital company helped us to react fast and efficiently.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

Alexander Chiu Werner: No, we could maintain our actual team (we even increased it during a pandemic)

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Alexander Chiu Werner: We create new support channels and integrate them into an omnichannel solution that helped our team to give faster and contextual responses.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Alexander Chiu Werner: No, we try to apply but being a recently created company, we couldn’t benefit from it.

Your website?

https://finsmart.pe/