Our final panellist to be introduced is Tesh Srivastava. Tesh is CEO & Co-Founder of Wathe, which offers SMEs free business and data analytic tools with access to business finance.
Tesh is a former Big-4 management consultant in banking and has extensive fintech experience. Most recently setting up a UK consumer lending platform which connected the near-prime sector with credit unions. Passionate about tools for SMEs as well as SME finance, Tesh is on a mission to enable lenders and SMEs to work together.
Read on to find out a bit more about our panellist!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you are up to right now?
I’m Co-Founder & CEO of Wathe. We are trying to enable SMEs to make data-driven decisions that impact business growth. Our solution will bridge the gap between the business performance and how lenders can assess them.
What does the year ahead have in store for you?
We’ve just closed our seed round (ed – Congrats!) so this year is about building the app for our SME customers and working with lenders to facilitate loans.
What have you been most impressed with in the SME lending world and its’ response to the pandemic?
I think the genuine care and human-centric approach has been phenomenal and the real efforts to support SMEs at the most unprecedented of times have been heart-warming. Even though all the government-backed initiatives have been incredible, without the genuine care and attention of the industry these initiatives would not have been so impactful.
What do you think the year ahead holds for the alternative lender market as we exit the pandemic?
The lending community has really pulled together to support SMEs with additional capital and favourable terms. I believe the next challenge will be managing those loans and the SMEs who may still struggle to pay back; and to further support SMEs that have performed better than expected.
What do you think the year ahead holds for the SME world as we exit the pandemic?
The big question for SMEs is – are we out of the pandemic? and what does that look like? Business models and operations may need to change in the new environment as will the necessity of keeping on top of the numbers and actively forecasting scenarios. That’s obviously where we believe Wathe can help!
Our panel will soon be hard at work in choosing the winners of each category, and the winners will be announced on May 24th- stay tuned! Take a look at our awards homepage to find out more about each nominee and much more.
