Step 4 Business
Innovation introduced in 2021
Institutions that have implemented the product/service: Step 4 Business Spain, Step 4 Business Brazil, Azimut Marketplace by STEP in Italy
MSMEs served: Italy, Spain, Brazil
Challenges
Needs of SMEs to access to digital financial products and services in a one-stop-shop, having access to alternative lending sources vs. incumbent, expecially in a "credit crunch" environment. Instant lending, invoice discounting, factoring, reverse factoring, digital and international payments, business account and insurances are some of the key products offered on the STEP platform, integrating via APIs the best fintech and insurtech solutions available in the market. STEP also offers to SMEs the ability to aggregate all their current accounts (open banking), with a business financial management tool (digital CFO) helping SMEs to manage efficiently their finances with predictive analytics, artificial intelligence cash flow evaluation, spending control tools etc. All of those offered for free to small and medium enterprises.Primary target
Which group does your product/service primarily target?
Payments
SMEs
Factoring
SMEs
Insurance
SMEs
Financial Education
SMEs
Cash Management
SMEs
Description of Innovation
The STEP ecosystem is the first fully-fledged digital solution offering all key financial products and services to SMEs, levering state-of-the-art digital integrations with the best fintech and insurtech players.As McKinsey pointed out in 2019 in its report "Beyond Banking: how banks can use ecosystems to win in the SMEs market", STEP is the ecosystem approach that may be the key to tapping this vast market. Accenture also quantifies in 92bn $ the potential revenues uplift generated by embedded finance solutions for SMEs by 2025.
Fully-fledged financial services ecosystem dedicated to SMEs. Instant lending, invoice discounting, FX, business financial management, insurances with a full digital process