ICICI Bank in partnership with First Hive, a cross-channel marketing platform, has launched SME Empower, an online marketplace catering exclusively to small and medium enterprises. The marketplace is open to all SMEs, including non-ICICI Bank customers.

Speaking about the initiative, Ajay Gupta, Head- Commercial Banking and SME, ICICI Bank said, "At ICICI Bank, we are committed to offer innovative products and services to our customers at speed and high level of convenience. We have constantly strived to grow our offerings and services for the small and medium enterprises by providing solutions which keep them to scale."

The SME Empower platform further underscores our commitment to be a partner in growth to the  SMEs by providing access to a large ecosystem of customers and suppliers, he added.

Aditya Bhamidipaty, Founder & CEO, First Hive said, "SMEs are the growth engines for India and we are excited to partner with ICICI Bank in helping the SMEs in acquiring, engaging and retaining customers."

This helps them to not only gain a new series of customers but using ‘First Hive’ – a cross channel marketing platform they can also equip their business to go digital and create a sustainable value add to enabling their success, he added.

A platform for showcasing and listing products: A first-of-its-kind offering by a commercial bank, SME Empower offers an online community of registered SMEs to market their products to buy and sell amongst each other.

SME Empower will offer access to over 750 products in diverse categories from electronics and appliances to office equipment. Through a simple registration and verification process, entrepreneurs can create their own e-store free of cost, opening up for them a lucrative avenue to expand their reach and scale their operations. As buyers, SMEs on this platform get access to exclusive deals from other members of the marketplace on purchases for their business.

The platform’s practical organisational framework allows SMEs to efficiently manage inventory through a dashboard, that displays a real-time snapshot of their inventory and presents the option to auto-enable or disable products from the e-store.

SMEs will also have access to a detailed online analytics report of their activities in the marketplace.

Security of transactions on the SME Empower platform are done through an integrated ICICI Bank payment gateway.

Through First Hive, sellers on SME Empower have access to a cross-channel marketing platform. Through this platform, SMEs can run marketing and outreach campaigns across a variety of channels such as emails, SMS and social media. This is targeted towards helping SMEs acquire, engage and retain customers, with the larger goal of helping them increase their business footprint across the country.