Rating System to help Thai Startups

Here comes another good news for startups and SMEs with innovation. The Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG) is planning to release a rating system which will help boost confidence for the banks to grant loans for startups and SMEs and together help move forward Thailand 4.0

Kriengkrai Chaisiriwongsuk, TCG’s Vice President of Marketing and Products, said the company plans to launch Thailand Technology Rating System (TTRS) in the Q3 of this year. TTRS will be a tool for banks to assess the technology businesses, so they can be assured of granting loans to startups.

At present, most banks only assess in terms of financial status and past performance but technology businesses are more specific and they are about the future.

TTRS is an expert system which will base on rating measurement from the 4 modules starting from management, technology, marketing capability and business opportunities. The result of assessment will help the banks to make better decision in granting loans and they can also reduce risk by getting guarantee from TGC.

TTRS obtained and applied the knowledge from Korea Technology Rating System (KTRS) which took seven years to develop such the stable technology.

The technology helps startups and SMEs to realize their strengths and weaknesses so they can make improvement to their businesses. The government has also approved the credit guarantee worth more than 10 billion baht for startups and SMEs. With the help from TTRS, startups and SMEs will get easier access to get the loans. In addition, startup and SMEs will get credit guarantee worth 5 million baht, while SMEs and startups with innovation will get credit guarantee worth maximum of 20 million baht.

The government has supported credit guarantee fee at 1-2% of credit line in the first year.

TGC will focus on manufacturing industries and service businesses which have ICT. In addition, it can guarantee credit as long as ten years, which is enough for SMEs to develop products until they are commercialized in the market.