Runway

Getting the money is mostly a paperwork problem

Runway writes and places funding applications for South African businesses that already trade — the commercial banks, the IDC, SEFA, the NEF and the Land Bank. Old Main Road, Pinetown, and on the road most weeks.

Send us your numbers

R784m

Approved for clients since 2014

331

Files taken to a credit committee

71%

Of those files came back approved

38 days

Median, mandate to signed term sheet

Two of us, about thirty files a year

Runway is Thandeka Mkhize and Ashwin Naidoo, in two rooms above the tyre place on Old Main Road in Pinetown. Thandeka wrote business credit at a bank in Durban for eleven years and knows what a committee actually reads and what it skips. Ashwin spent nine years on the IDC agro-processing desk, on the other side of the table. Thirty files a year is as many as two people can do properly, so that is what we take. We do not take a percentage of what you raise. An adviser paid on the size of the facility has a reason to want you to borrow more than the business can carry, and we would rather not have that reason sitting in the room. We also do not write applications for businesses that have not traded yet, and if we think a file will be declined we say so in the first meeting, before you have paid us anything.

How a credit committee actually reads your file

Twenty minutes, recorded at a Durban Chamber breakfast in March. The talk is ordinary — it is the questions at the end that are worth your time.

How we work

The numbers come first

Three years of annual financials, the management accounts and twelve months of bank statements, before anyone talks about how much. Often the first job is fixing what those numbers say about you, not applying.

One lender, chosen on purpose

Applying to five banks at once puts five declines on your record and makes the sixth harder. We pick the one whose mandate actually fits the deal and go there properly.

Dates you can plan around

A written timeline at the start: when the pack goes in, when the committee sits, when money could realistically land. Term sheets take weeks, not days, and we say so up front.

Your numbers stay in the room

The pack goes to one lender at a time, in your name, and nothing leaves this office for anywhere you have not agreed to in writing first.

We sit in the meeting

You do the talking about your own business, because nobody else can. We handle the covenant, security and shareholder questions, which is where most owners get caught out.

Worked through to drawdown

Most deals die after approval, in a conditions precedent list nobody read. We work that list with you until the money is in the account, not until the letter arrives.

What we charge

Readiness review

R9 500 once off
  • Three years of financials read properly
  • A written note on what a lender will query
  • A realistic number you could raise today
  • Two hours in your office or on a call
  • Credited in full against a mandate
Book a review

Full mandate

R26 000 up front, R28 000 at drawdown
  • Everything in the readiness review
  • The whole application pack, written and checked
  • One lender chosen and approached in your name
  • We attend the credit meeting with you
  • Conditions precedent worked to drawdown
  • Nothing further owed if the file is declined
Start an enquiry

Standing retainer

R8 400 a month
  • For businesses that raise every year
  • Facility reviews and covenant tracking
  • Asset and equipment finance as it comes up
  • A quarterly sit-down on the numbers
  • Three months notice either way
Ask about a retainer

Clients

The bank had already declined us once. Thandeka went through the same numbers, changed how the debtors book was explained, and the second application came back approved at a better rate than we had asked for.
Sibusiso Zwane · Isipingo
Ashwin told us in the first meeting that we were not ready, and exactly what to fix. It cost us nine months and one machine we did not buy, and then the IDC application went through first time.
Marlene Bezuidenhout · Estcourt
I have used two other consultants. Both wanted a slice of the facility and both wanted me to borrow more. Runway charged a fee, talked me out of half of what the bank offered, and I still sleep at night.
Yusuf Patel · Pietermaritzburg

Businesses we have raised for

  • Zwane Transport, Isipingo — R6.4m of asset finance for eleven trucks, over three drawdowns
  • Bezuidenhout Feeds, Estcourt — R11.2m from the IDC for a pellet line and a weighbridge
  • Ndlovu Poultry, Ixopo — R2.8m from the Land Bank and a R900 000 facility against contracts
  • Cato Ridge Toolroom, Cato Ridge — R4.1m for a second CNC mill and the roof it stands under
  • Naicker & Sons Textiles, Verulam — R7.6m of working capital, rebuilt off the debtors book
  • Umlazi Bakery Group, Umlazi — R1.9m from SEFA for a delivery fleet and a second oven
  • Highway Cold Store, Pinetown — R14.5m for a cold room extension and standby generation
  • Mthembu Civils, Ladysmith — R3.3m of guarantees and plant finance for a municipal contract

Not sure the file is ready? That is the meeting to have first.

Start an enquiry

Tell us what you are raising for

Every enquiry gets an answer within two working days, including the ones where the answer is not yet. Old Main Road, Pinetown · 031 702 4188 · files@runway.co.za