Micro, small and medium-sized businesses in eight Ukrainian regions will be able to access up to 1 million hryvnia in financing at an annual rate of 6% to buy equipment, machinery, raw materials, supplies and services. The new programme is being launched by fintech infrastructure provider Activitis and the international humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps as part of the BLOOM programme, which is funded by the government of the United Kingdom through UK aid.
The financing is open to entrepreneurs and companies registered in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odesa regions. It will not extend to areas of active fighting or territories with a high level of security risk.
How the financing works
Loans will be issued for terms of 3, 6 or 9 months without requiring collateral or guarantors. Mercy Corps will cover up to 80% of the annual interest rate, bringing the effective cost to businesses down to 6% per year.
The programme runs through eDilo, an online service built by Activitis. A business owner selects the goods or services they need from a supplier and uploads the invoice to the platform. The supplier is paid the full amount upfront, while the business repays the funds according to an agreed schedule.
Pavlo Matiyash, chief executive of Activitis, said that in frontline regions the problem is often not just the cost of money but the outright lack of access to financing at all. He said the partnership with Mercy Corps was designed to let businesses obtain financing on terms more favourable than the market offers.
Same-day approval
According to the organisers, a decision on the available lending limit can be made within 30 minutes, and businesses can start using the financing the same day.
Vicki Aken, Mercy Corps' country director in Ukraine, said access to financing was critical for businesses seeking to recover, grow and invest in their future. She said the organisation hoped the initiative would help more entrepreneurs strengthen their financial resilience, open new opportunities for development and contribute to the recovery of their communities.
Organisers expect that more than 150 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises will take advantage of the preferential terms.
