Navigating the Onboarding Process with EBF

There are many boxes that need to be checked before you can begin a relationship with a long-term-lender. Since you are reading this, we hope that you have found your ideal lender in us! If you are, however, still unsure whether we’re the ideal lender for you we’d love for you to visit our Services page, where you will learn more about what we can do for your business.

In this post, we aim to acquaint new and potential customers with the EBF financing process. This pertains specifically to the application process and the onboarding processes. We hope this alleviates any uncertainty regarding our processes and assists you in making the most of your time with EBF.

Getting Started (Your Application)

If you have gone through the traditional avenues to apply for finance, you may be accustomed to lengthy cycles fraught with score-paged applications, dozens of calls and emails, and an expectation of invasive levels of transparency on your part.

You’ll be glad to know that EBF customers are not obliged to undergo these kinds of processes.

You can begin your journey with us in one of two ways:

1. Chat with a dedicated Business Development Manager

The first way that you can kick things off is by getting in touch with one of our experienced BDMs. We make this a simple process by asking for only the essential information here. Once we’ve received your contact information, your dedicated Account Manager will be in touch with you to discuss your needs and assist you in applying for finance with us (that simple)!

2. Jump straight into the application process

If you believe we are the financer for you and would like to make short work of the application process, you can send us all the information that we need to begin your journey here.  This form provides us with most of the information we need to commence with the application process. By filling out this form, your Account Manager will have the information and documentation required to begin a short, streamlined process.

Receiving Finance (The Onboarding Process)

When you have begun the application process, our BDM will request any additional information that may be required. This is usually information pertinent to your specific finance requirements, such as customer payment history, asset liens, and so on. This is the final stretch before you get the finance your need.

Once you have been approved for finance with EBF, you will be presented with a term sheet – this is our commitment to finance your company. Our team carefully *tailor each term sheet to suit our customers unique situation and ensure that all parties get the most from our ongoing relationship.

*This is something that we pride ourselves in – each term sheet is specifically designed to nurture a beneficial, long-term relationship.

You will have ample time to review the term sheet and ensure that the terms we offer align with your goals. Remember, we are happy to review loan terms together to ensure that you understand them, are comfortable with them, and know that you are getting the most from our services.

After you have accepted the term sheet, we move to the formal due diligence portion of financing.

This consists of the following:

1. We gather some additional information from you.
2. Documentation is drafted by our legal department (financing and facility agreements, PPSA registrations are confirmed, credit and legal checks are done, and so on).
3. An on-site visit is scheduled to meet your leadership and operational team, who we would be working closely with. This is also a “mini audit” of financial and operational information and processes to verify that all the findings in the due diligence process were, in fact, representative of what is ‘happening on the ground’.
4. We then sign all agreements and financing takes place.

The process can take a little as 10 business days or as long as 20 business days. It’s important to note that it is exceedingly dependent on how complex the financing solution is. We advise clients are prepared to provide assistance during this process to aid in expediting the process and avoiding any potential delays.

Understanding Our Financing Terms

We believe that our financing terms are some of the most competitive that you will find in the alternative finance industry. As we mentioned above, we strive to build long-lasting relationships, and a central part of that is the effectiveness of the terms we offer. All that said, we still need to consider factors like risk when establishing our financing terms and conditions. Your risk profile is the ‘score’ assigned to your business based on various factors, such as annual business revenue, customer credit scores and profitability, operational ability, organizational structure (internal structure), affordability, diversification of customers. We use risk profiles to accurately determine how to effectively mitigate risk by way of the terms we offer.

Considerations (Who/ Why Do We Decline to Finance?)

There are a few considerations for businesses to make before engaging with EBF. These include:

• Minimum finance value – Depending on the type of finance facility you seek; minimum finance values may apply. Invoice Factoring, for example, must be factored at a minimum of $350,000 (CAD) per month.
• Minimum business revenue – Also depending on the type of finance facility you seek; your business may have to meet minimum revenue criteria. This is typically around $3,5 Million (CAD) per annum, though this may vary slightly, depending on criteria like large purchase orders (unpaid) and sustained revenue growth. This is the main factor that imposes limitations on the age of businesses with whom we can work, as ‘embryo’ startups typically do not possess the income history required to mitigate risk sufficiently. For this reason, we do not provide finance to businesses with less than twelve months of revenue activity.
• Risk profile – While we conduct risk assessment differently to traditional finance institutions, we still consider the overall risk profile of a client before engaging. If you have a history of sporadic income, frequent or substantial leadership changes, and high customer turnover, we may not be able to provide you with the finance you need.
• Industry type – While EBF remains industry agnostic, there are certain industries that we do not finance. These industries include cross-continental shipping and logistics, hospitality (restaurants specifically), and media production (such as music, movies, etc.).

If you believe that your business is suited to receive finance from EBF, we invite you to begin the application process here. If you would like to find out more about us and the services we offer, you are welcome to book a meeting with Gareth Bird, our Chief Growth Officer, here.