Commercial finance broker Merchant Cash has launched a website where businesses can apply for a free Veda credit score and be matched with an appropriate credit provider.The new site, SMECreditScore.com.au, is pitched at small and medium businesses, which often have difficulty securing finance.Co-founders James Watson and Jonathan Raymond, who also own Merchant Cash, said there was widespread ignorance in the SME community about credit scoring, just as there was in the consumer market.Watson said that when a business was equipped with its credit score it had a better idea of where to apply for finance."The business might be too high-risk for a bank but there are a lot of niche business lenders, such as invoice finance companies, marketplace lenders offering unsecured loans and finance companies offering cash flow finance," he said.To get their credit score businesses must answer some questions about their financial needs. Merchant Cash uses that information and the credit score to match businesses with "appropriate lenders".Watson said the lender would still go through a normal underwriting process but the borrower should have a better chance of securing finance because of the matching process.