Funding Societies: Survey reveals 72% of MSMEs in SEA boosted revenue with digital financing

Kuala Lumpur, 24 November 2021 - Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s largest SME digital financing platform, today released its regional impact study. To mark half a decade of the FinTech’s lending, its 2020 survey measures the social and economic impact of its funding to Funding Societies-linked MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) in 2018 and 2019 across Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. 72% of the respondents said their revenues would decrease if not for the FinTech’s business financing. In its six years of operations, Funding Societies has financed over US$1.8 billion through more than 4.8 million loans to nearly 100,000 MSMEs in the region.

Applying the Multi-Regional Input Output global value chain (MRIO-GVC) method of estimating sectoral contribution, which is pioneered by the Asian Development Bank, the study also employs data collected from Funding Societies’ internal systems and user research to measure the borrower’s impact. Sector, revenue, expense, depreciation, and employee numbers are among the data points factored into the programme that creates the output of Funding Societies’ survey. 84% of the surveyed small businesses had used the FinTech’s financing as working capital to pay for overheads, inventory, and business equipment, which were all crucial in their efforts to sustain operations. The SME borrower obtains financing from US$500 up to US$1.5 million, which can be disbursed in as fast as 24 hours, answering in a timely manner to SMEs who face the pertinent challenge of accessing business funds.

Co-founder and Group CEO, Kelvin Teo, said, “My co-founder, Reynold, and I started Funding Societies to make a positive difference in Southeast Asia and we’re heartened to see the huge impact to SMEs over the past 6 years. We are looking to empower SMEs not just in digital financing but also solving their other pain points over time.”

According to a survey conducted by Ernst & Young, 16% of SMEs are open to exploring other financial providers including non-banks, and 68% said they are open to non-traditional lenders as the core appeal is a much faster loan approval process.

Blackrock’s 2020 Global Sustainable Investing Survey revealed that 54% of its global respondents consider sustainable investing to be fundamental to investment processes and outcomes, and 57% of APAC respondents stated that sustainable investing is already - or will become - central to their investment strategies.

SMEs who are interested to apply for SME digital financing, please visit https://fundingsocieties.com.my/ for more information. Access the full report at https://fundingsocieties.com/press-assets