Three per cent of Australia's small and medium enterprises used a peer-to-peer, marketplace or other alternative lender last year, according to a new survey.Marketplace lender Banjo Loans commissioned the survey of 850 businesses, which also found that 16 per cent of SMEs are aware of alternative finance providers and six per cent intend to use one this year.Banjo chief executive Andrew Colliver said: "Given that the industry only started to gain traction last year, three per cent is a sizeable number."Respondents reported that things they liked about alternative lenders were transparency, flexibility and cost.According to the survey 74 per cent of SMEs get their funding from a major bank, nine per cent from a credit union, eight per cent from a regional bank, eight per cent from a finance company, and four per cent from a foreign-owned bank.Twenty-seven per cent of respondents said cost of finance and availability of finance were challenges for their business, and 20 per cent said they had been unsuccessful when applying for bank finance.Twenty-five per cent said they issued an opportunity because of a lack of funding.