Loan applicants must be a Canadian citizen or a legal entity owned and controlled by a Canadian citizen, including:

• a sole proprietorship, an unincorporated business that is owned by one individual;
• a for-profit small Canadian business federally/provincially/territorially incorporated in Canada that is controlled directly or indirectly by one or more resident persons;
• a for-profit co-operative corporation incorporated under a federal, provincial or territorial co-operative Act, or;
• a social enterprise that earns revenue from the regular supply of personal property/goods and services and meets the profitability and equity criteria above;
• not-for-profit organizations are not eligible for loans.

Individuals submitting loan applications must be:

• At least 19 years of age
• A Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident
• Residing in Canada

Eligible businesses are those which are over 50% Women-owned. In the case of a Sole Proprietorship, the Sole Proprietor is a woman.
Further, the business is managed and controlled by one or more Women, where a Woman is a signatory of the business’s legal documents and financial accounts, and which is operated independently from businesses that are not owned by Women.

Applicants must have and maintain:

• a valid and separate business bank account and satisfy basic liquidity requirements,
• a Business Number registered with the Canada Revenue Agency

DELIA is restricted from making loans to companies primarily engaged in certain activities, such as:

• holding or managing real estate
• extracting resources
• selling, marketing or providing gambling, pornography, alcohol, tobacco, weapons or illegal goods.

 

DELIA is committed to prioritizing the following diverse Women-owned businesses:

• Indigenous/First Nation
• Official language minority community (French)
• Black
• Visible minority
• 2SLGBTQI+
• Recent new Canadian
• Persons with disabilities
• Located in a rural or remote area

Inclusive of Gender non-binary entrepreneurs.

Eligible expenses that can be financed by a DELIA microloan include:

• Capital assets (including machinery/equipment, leasehold/property improvements)
• Office and equipment rental
• Salaries and benefits (excluding owner’s salary)
• IT/Software license purchase
• Professional services
• Inventory/Supplies
• Intellectual Property
• Working Capital (e.g. payroll, lease payments, accounts management, rent, overhead costs)
• Digital (including website/E-commerce development)
• Marketing/advertising/business promotion
• Employee training
• Short term receivable financing (i.e. financing to service a contract)
• Business start up costs (legal fees, business incorporation fees, business plan preparation, etc.).

Ineligible expenses include:

• Capital expenditures on real property (e.g. land/building purchases)
• Goodwill
• Amortization Costs
• Purchase of assets for more than fair market value
• Owner’s salary
• Payment of bonuses
• Refinancing existing debt
• Purchase of stocks/shares
• Franchise fees
• Research and development
• Management fees
• Dividend payout
• Increase to shareholder or management committee compensation.

DELIA investment may not be used for any of the ineligible expenses listed above.

Begin by clicking APPLY NOW.

Applicants will be taken to NCFDC’s fintech-driven DELIA lending platform powered by CORL (which will generate a credit enquiry).

The application normally takes no longer than 30 minutes and sometimes as little as 10 minutes if you have all of your information ready and are able to link directly to online accounts. You will be instantly informed of your application status (PRE-QUALIFIED or IN REVIEW). A DELIA representative will contact you regarding the final decision (APPROVE or DECLINE). If APPROVED, NCFDC will issue a Letter of Offer and Loan Agreement to successful applicants and ultimately disburse funds via EFT directly to your business bank account.

Normally, successful applicants can expect to receive funds net of two weeks from the date of submission of a full and complete application.

At the same time, NCFDC reserves the right to carry out extended due diligence in review of any application and does not guarantee any amount of funding to any applicant. Lending decisions are made in the sole and unfettered discretion of NCFDC.

An algorithm is simply a process or set of rules to be followed in making calculations, especially via software and automated processes like financial technologies.

The problem that is solved by our algorithm is simply: how to rapidly deploy microloans to viable Women-owned businesses without bias, so as to unlock potential, maximize success and accelerate business growth.

How do we achieve this? Working with our Canadian fintech partner, CORL, we built DELIA.

1. DELIA is in the first instance, a fund for Women, which eliminates any peremptory, invisible, subconscious or inadvertent/unintentional bias.

2. The proprietary credit engine evaluates the applicant’s business quantitatively based solely upon our determination of its objective merit across multiple dimensions.

3. Objective risk/predictive analysis is then adjusted based on macro-assumptions about what we believe to be the unrealized potential of Women entrepreneurs (that accessing capital yields a higher rate of success for this traditionally underserved client segment).

4. Finally, decisions are made quickly via a simplified online process, and loans disbursed at the earliest possible opportunity through automation, further accelerating timelines for realization of business growth and success of Women-owned firms in Canada.

5. As the DELIA data set grows, we further evolve our credit engine to ensure the recognition of the full potential of women entrepreneurs and to optimize microfinance for true gender equity.

Successful DELIA applicants will be contacted by a member of the DELIA team who will organize an onboarding and orientation session.

Select DELIA loan recipients may benefit from additional 1:1 mentoring and support including business advisory, networking and referrals, group-based training and workshops and other supports.

DELIA is derived from the acronym: Develop, Educate, Lead, Innovate and Accelerate, which defines the nucleus of the DELIA project from inception. The next layer of meaning derives from Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt. DELIA is one of her many and diverse titles, meaning ‘from Delos’, the island where she was born. When we think of DELIA in this sense, we think of a strong deal for Women entrepreneurs who are on “the hunt” to access capital for their ventures. With the support of the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, we are pursuing gender equity in economic advancement. The DELIA brand encompasses all of this and more.

Q. Who administers the loan?

A. Northumberland CFDC (“NCFDC”) administers the DELIA loan, with the support of ISED Canada.

NCFDC is a non-profit entrepreneurship NGO governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of entrepreneurs, experts and innovators. NCFDC has provided financing and strategy to entrepreneurs since 1985 in Northumberland and since 2001 through the Community Futures Program. NCFDC is a member of the CVCA and is located at Venture13 in Cobourg, Ontario.

Q. What about the confidentiality of my application?

A. Please review our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Information is collected for the limited purpose of assessing your application to DELIA, and for ongoing loan monitoring and reporting to the Government of Canada. DELIA loan recipients are not disclosed publically except with the recipient’s prior written consent.

Q. Will a DELIA application affect my credit score?

A. Completing the full credit application via NCFDC’s fintech-driven DELIA lending platform (powered by CORL) will result in a credit enquiry. For more information about how loan applications affect your credit, read this helpful article from Equifax (click here).

Q. Should I revoke authorization of my accounts linked to the DELIA fintech platform on CORL after a decision is made?

A. This is entirely up to you. Maintaining authorization will allow us to monitor your progress and assist in additional lending solutions. You are not required to maintain linked accounts and may revoke authorization at any time. If you require any assistance, please contact delia@ncfdc.ca.

Q. How much can I ask for?

A. Applicants can request up to $50,000 for a DELIA Microloan. The amount approved will be based on our analysis of your request. Approved amounts are typically $15,000.

Q. How do you calculate the interest rate and is it the same rate for all clients?

A. DELIA microloans are automatically risk-rated by on our credit engine and confirmed by NCFDC. The interest rate varies between Prime +2 and Prime +4% based on the personal and business information provided. As a result, the interest rate will vary with each microloan recipient.

Q. When I applied for DELIA, Corl indicated I already had an account and I could not proceed (I previously received a loan from NCFDC). Can I apply again?

A. Yes. First, you can log into Corl with your existing company credentials (go to https://cfdc.corl.io/login). When there, we would ask that you update your company information including linking any missing, delinked or deactivated online business accounts. That will give us your current business profile. After you’ve done that, simply email us at financing@ncfdc.ca and indicate your interest in a DELIA microloan. Please include DELIA in the subject line. We’ll take it from there! And please note, this will generate a credit enquiry.

Q. Can I accept financing from DELIA if I’ve received loan(s) from other Loan Administrator(s) delivering the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund?

A. Eligible borrowers cannot receive more than a total of $50,000 from all Loan Administrators of the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund.