Clearbanc Offering Funding to Combat US-China Tariff Costs

Clearbanc, the Toronto-based funding company co-founded by Dragons’ Den’s Michele Romanow, has announced this month that it will be expanding its funding options to support those small businesses who need assistance purchasing inventory from Chinese suppliers.

Specializing in funding businesses who require capital for digital adverts, the Canadian firm decided to expand its offerings after Chinese suppliers started to require inventory payments upfront as a response to the pressure caused by President Trump’s trade war with China. “This isn’t really about the tariffs,” explained Romanow. “This is really about the fact that now all of the Chinese suppliers, because of the uncertainty, are asking for upfront payments for inventory.”

With the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend approaching, vendors are looking to be as well stocked as possible, especially when estimates are saying shoppers will spend more than $136 billion in Q4 2019. Most notably affected will be those merchants who deal in electronics. And with worries of the spending extravaganza weekend being affected by the tariffs having persisted for months, Clearbanc is aiming to step in and soothe some of the uncertainty.

Not being limited to goods coming from China, funding is also available to all businesses looking to secure capital for inventory purposes, regardless of the supplier’s location; with a charge of 9% of the total amount funded, and funds available being between $10,000 and $10 million.

Speaking on the company’s strategy, Romanow had to say that “every political change can certainly breed new business, but these are all fairly new so we’re just listening and figuring out what our founders are looking for.”

Brendan Garrett was a Reporter at deBanked.