What happens between my purchase order and my vendors being paid?

You apply

Your vendors (the businesses you buy materials or goods from to fill the order) each give you a proforma invoice. You apply on the platform with your anchor’s purchase order, those proforma invoices and a letter of instruction to your anchor about where it pays for the order.

Your anchor confirms the order

The platform sends your application to your anchor, which confirms the purchase order and signs a letter of undertaking. The letter routes your anchor’s payment; it is not a guarantee. Without your anchor’s confirmation the application goes no further.

The financier reviews it, and you accept

More than one person at the financier reviews the application before it is approved, and it can be declined. If it is approved, you receive an offer letter. Read it, then accept it.

A guarantee to each vendor

You then pay a guarantee charge, by mobile money or by bank, and the financier confirms it has arrived. The financier sends a guarantee to each of your vendors, so each can deliver knowing it will be paid. Tell your vendors beforehand that they are paid this way.

Delivery, then payment

The goods are delivered to your anchor. You upload the delivery note and each vendor’s final invoice, and your anchor confirms the delivery note. After the financier’s final review, it pays your vendors. The money goes to your vendors, not to you, and the financing is booked in your name.

Paying vendors under guarantee, only once delivery is confirmed, is how the financier manages the risk that the order is not filled.

Then your anchor pays

Your anchor pays for the goods on its normal terms, and its letter of undertaking routes that payment to the financier. Under the documented terms the financing is with full recourse: if your anchor’s payment does not come through or falls short, you repay.