Sail Business Loans Lender Review
Sail’s founder has set up a new company named LUMI specializing in bad credit businesses. Based on industry reports, Sail does not longer accept new loans (or at least it is not clear to us if they do). As a result – we have decided to stop updating the review and no longer recommend Sail Financing.
We have kept the review “as is” for educational purposes until we have more information in hand.
Notable Sail Competitors and Alternatives
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Please view additional alternative on our list of Best Business Loans in Australia and compare unsecured business loans from top lenders.
Sail Business Loans Review in Numbers
| 💰 Loan Amount | $5,000 – $315,000 |
| 💸 Loan Term | 3 months – 12 months |
| ⛔ Unsecured? | Available |
| ⌚ Requirements | Trading for at least 6 months |
| Turnover greater than $5,000 per month | |
| Not be or have any current directors in a debtor agreement | |
| ⭐ Client Reviews | 96% Positive |
| ⭐ Editorial Score | NONE |
| 📝 ABN: | 45 099 575 363 |
| 📝 Credit License: | 099 575 363 |
| 🌐 Website: | https://www.sail.com.au |
| 💻 Apply Online? | Yes |
| ⏱️ Response Time | 24h |
| 📃 Required: | ABN/ACN for your business, a valid driver’s license, your business’ bank information (for gathering financials and making payments), a cloud accounting software (for gathering financials). |
| 💳 Minimal Interest Rates: | Operates with a variable interest rate that’s calculated in a “factor rate” form that’s a decimal – not an interest percentage. |
| 💌 General Feedback from Clients Online: | Sail started operating in 2016, and as a result their reviews online are limited. However, the reviews that do exist are outstanding and overwhelmingly positive. Borrowers praise Sail for being honest, transparent, and for providing excellent service. |
| Awards and 🏆 Awards and Recognition:: | Member of FinTech Australia. |
| ⚖️ Comparison | Compare Sail with other lenders |
Table of Contents for this Sail Review
- Company Story
- What Sets Sail.com.au Apart?
- Client Reviews
- Funding Boost to Sail
- Review summary and Ratings
Basic Info
Although operating only since 2016, Sail has already got itself a name in the small business loans in Australia market. Simply put, it has one of the lowest minimum requirements in the industry which makes it very apt for bad credit business loans, and glowing Sail reviews online. Sail understand that many profitable small businesses experience seasonal fluctuations and shortfalls in cash and resources. Sail offers fast and affordable working capital on demand to help steer your business through these dips, or help you gear up for peak periods.
Company Story & Credibility
Sail is a business loan lender that focuses on small to medium size business financing solutions. They offer primarily unsecured business loans, pride themselves on their simplified process, and boast no hidden fees. Sail is a comparably new lender to join the industry, having been founded in late 2016. However, they’re already receiving press accolades from the likes of Smart Company, who featured their $8 million company launch in November, 2016 and many other company reviews.
Sail’s founder, Yanir Yakutiel, spent 15 years in the finance industry before choosing to launch Sail at the end of 2016. Sail have created a unique algorithm that will “change the way” business lending for small businesses is done. Sail also offers additional products in the fintech arena and prides themselves in being a small business built to serve other small businesses.
Sail believe that business owners should have access to financing opportunities without being weighed down by the methods of traditional banking. They genuinely want to make a difference in the small business lending space, and have designed everything from their simple application to their 24 hours approval response time to reflect those core values. In addition to unsecured business loans, Sail specializes in indigenous and aboriginal business loans, short term business loans, startup business loans, and they have a very convenient business loan repayment calculator available to site-visitors.
As of 2018 Sail’s original founder Yanir Yakutiel left Sail Business Loans to form rival competitor Lumi. Lumi has achieved some serious backing in its own right but it appears that whilst Yanir Yakutiel has left, Sail’s main investors still remain directors of Sail (more on this below).
What Sets Sail Apart from Others?
Sail Business Loans is bringing unique biometric security features and real-time big data decision-making to small business lending. Sail offers loans ranging between $5,000 and $100,000 and is currently working with customers across a variety of industries including hospitality, tourism, retail and manufacturing.
Its unique selling point is derived from its biometric technology. Sail Funding is using ‘selfies’ to help customers confirm their identities and finalize loan applications not only faster but also, with more certainty and less fraud. It even reports some businesses have received funding in less than 30 minutes!
Sail Funding’s method harnesses biometric security and uses a simple selfie to confirm user’s identities against official forms of ID, such as a passport or driver’s license.
Sail’s solution verifies that the documents have not been tampered with or forged – at a level of accuracy on par with that of “airport-grade security” according to Sail. The facial recognition technology then confirms that the identity and location matches the uploaded documents in less than 60 seconds.
Sail Funding Boost
Upon startup, Sail Funding secured an $8 million funding boost led by its then CEO Yanir Yakutiel, as part of its first capital raising and has been actively developing tech-enabled improvements to gain an edge over its peers since. Its backers include Sydney-based investors Messrs Marc and Gideion Lubotzky, who have joined the Sail Funding board. Whilst Yanir Yakutiel has left to form rival company Lumi it appears Sail’s main investors are still very much involved and one of the chief investors Gideion Lubotzky is still a registered director of Sail.
The funds were put towards further product development and expanding the lender’s tech talent pool, which is a pricey but an important part of Sail’s plans for dominance.
According to the company it is focusing on improving its core product and the user experience.
With several other small lenders also recently formed, the business is looking to differentiate itself with an algorithm that uses machine learning to deliver better risk analysis.
Sail Funding reported that it is developing software that can adaptively “become more intelligent” and effectively improve its ability to risk-assess its existing loan book and therefore, increase the rate at which its loan book grows over time.
NSW and Israeli Government Funded and Supported
In its originating year, 2016, Sail Funding participated in the NSW government’s Landing Pad program in Israel, which it was selected for along with seven other startups.
The eight fintechs, announced byNSW minister for industry Anthony Roberts, were Capital Pitch, FlashFX, Meeco, Manner by Risk, Sail Funding, Phriendly Phishing, Simply Wall St and Valiant Finance.
The eight startups sent representatives to Tel Aviv for two weeks and visited the federal government’s landing pad, and to access some of the best talent, mentors and investors in the world and bring this knowledge back to the Australian startup community.
In the same year, Sail officially launched its Sydney office, with a team of 10 developers based in Israel.
Sail Business Financing: Client Reviews
In Numbers:
– TrustPilot Australia: 90 Reviews, 92% Excellent, 4% Great, 3% Bad 4.9 / 5 Trust Score (Excellent)
– Sail Business Loans’ Facebook: 31 Reviews, 31 Positive, 5 / 5 Total Score
Highlighted Feedback:
Virtually all of Sail’s feedback vouches for an excellent service. Some of the reviews highlight:
“My experience with Sail has been very easy and straightforward. With a small business and not a lot of turnover to show, we didn’t hold much hope for being approved. Big banks wouldn’t give us the time of day. But, with minimal effort on our part, we were approved a loan the day after applying and funds were in our account later that same day”.
“Sail took away all the hassles that you would normally encounter with big banks… incredibly fast, secure and genuine. This is the future for small business borrowing”.
The three negative reviews all come from the same customer who has not been shown to be a verified client. The feedback criticises Sail for not being business owner friendly as they are not prepared to operate outside of their guidelines to accommodate businesses and it has been difficult to get through to their accounts department.
We think it’s important that before entering into your loan agreement you are well aware your business can operate within Sail’s policies and then you should be absolutely fine. Similarly we do not think the accounts department is the usual customer facing team so providing you don’t have any unique requests the customer service team has been regularly praised for their professionalism and guidance.
Analysis of Client Reviews:
Sail has only been in business since 2016, therefore there aren’t as many online reviews when compared to say Prospa (with a staggering 4,134 TrustPilot reviews). But since our last update of our Sail business review there has been an almost quadruple in the number of reviews Sail Business Loans has. . It’s fair to say that although there are only a modest amount of reviews, the reviews that exist online are very positive. In fact – they’re some of the most positive reviews of any lending company that we’ve looked at. Borrowers call Sail “honest” and “fair”. They are widely pleased with the efficiency of the application process, as well as the customized service that they receive from the company. Regularly praising its smart loan approval software, and how Sail were able to offer finance when banks weren’t prepared to.
As there is only one customer who has provided negative feedback, we think this speaks volumes as there are usually a wide range of both positive and negative reviews on any given lending company.
Sail.com.au
One of Sail’s strongest unique selling points is the website. With lighter, friendlier, design, any business owner is able to understand exactly what is the nature of service and how it works. That kind of ultra-professional design which is normally reserved to the biggest companies in the bunch really does establish trust in the eyes of prospective clients.
The sign up process is on par with the quality of the site. Easy, simple and friendly! It’s one of the simplest applications we’ve come across and won’t take more than a minute to submit your application and within hours you are likely to get a confirmation or rejection. Money could be in the bank the very next day!
Sail Loan Compatibility
- Startup: No, but one of the best for early stage businesses. Sail requires that you’ve been operating for at least 6 months.
- Bad credit: Yes, Sail looks at your personal financials but often still approves with bad credit.
- Sole trader: Yes, Sail works with sole traders.
- Established business: Yes, Sail works with established businesses.
- Turnover: Sail requires a turnover of $5,000/year.
Editorial Sail Australia Review Summary:
UNUPDATED – NO LONGER RELEVANT
Although operating only since 2016, Sail has already got itself a name in the small business loans in Australia market. Simply put, it has one of the lowest minimum requirements in the industry which makes it very apt for bad credit business loans, and glowing Sail reviews online. Sail understand that many profitable small businesses experience seasonal fluctuations and shortfalls in cash and resources. Sail offers fast and affordable working capital on demand to help steer your business through these dips, or help you gear up for peak periods.