Finance is a key driver of SMEs’ growth and exports. Capital is the oxygen that enables the firm to market their goods and services, expand production capacity, and sustain cash flow. At the same time, SMEs are widely viewed as having more limited access to capital than large companies. Given their typically higher volatility and less extensive financial track record, SMEs are generally more credit-constrained than are large firms. SMEs tend to have fewer external financing sources available to them and are typically much more dependent on banks than are larger firms.

For export-driven SMEs access to capital is especially critical, for setting up and expanding export-related operations, offering competitive payment terms to foreign customers, developing new export products and markets, and investing in production facilities, new capabilities and staff required for exporting. Indeed, export activities generate additional financial needs for which exporting SMEs need to identify and source capital. 

Nextrade Group is a leading analyst and idea-generator on ways to expand financing for export-driven SMEs. We have worked with such entities as the Inter-American Development Bank and Brookings Institution to generate fresh data and innovative institutional reforms to ensure no promising SME is precluded from participating in international trade because of the lack of capital.