KUALA LUMPUR, 18 April 2023 – Funding Societies, the largest unified SME digital finance platform in Southeast Asia, announced it has achieved US$3 billion (RM13.4 billion) over more than 5 million transactions of business financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the region. As the company expands across five countries in Southeast Asia, almost 100,000 SMEs have benefited from access to financing. It continues to support underserved SMEs via its extensive range of short-term financing solutions while achieving an overall platform cohort default rate under 2%. In Malaysia, Funding Societies disbursed RM2 billion in financing since its inception in 2017.

In its move to empower SMEs, the company began offering solutions beyond lending, such as payments and collections. Since establishing its payments business, Funding Societies has tripled its Gross Transaction Value (GTV) year-on-year through its proprietary solution Elevate, and its integration of CardUp’s payments solutions for FY2022.

Kelvin Teo, Co-founder & Group Chief Executive Officer, Funding Societies | Modalku said, “2022 was a big year for Funding Societies despite the uncertain macro environment. Committed to empowering SMEs in Southeast Asia, we’ve raised our Series C+; scaled up in Thailand and Vietnam; deepened localised financing propositions; secured our first credit line from a global commercial bank HSBC with US$50 million (RM224 million), entered into payments with CardUp and investment into Bank Index, because SMEs’ needs extend beyond financing.”

“While there are macro headwinds this year, we are optimistic to continue growing sustainably, as we did during COVID-19. We will continue to stay nimble, innovate, and scale up in financing, payments and other financial services – catering to various pain points of SMEs,” Teo added.

Chai Kien Poon, Country Head, Funding Societies Malaysia, remarked, “We are proud of how the team in Malaysia carried us across another milestone: touching the RM2 billion disbursement mark within six years. SMEs will continue needing additional financial support as they contribute towards the projected 4.5% GDP growth in 2023. We look forward - while working with stakeholders - to continue growing and positively impacting the Malaysian economy, and our society, by enabling MSMEs as well as creating and supporting jobs.”

“In line with our commitment towards uplifting the local SMEs, we are looking to introduce new products this year, including extending our Islamic Financing offerings. We look towards forging new industry partnerships to enable us to deepen our reach to the underserved, creditworthy SMEs.”

Welcoming CardUp to the Group

Another significant milestone was the acquisition of CardUp, a digital payments platform. Both entities are currently developing a unified digital finance platform for SMEs. The acquisition has also brought critical payments talent into Funding Societies. Together, the platform now covers Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam; with operations in Hong Kong and India too.

Going beyond lending to help SMEs Elevate in their business

Funding Societies also introduced its groundbreaking business expense solution that comes with a credit line – Elevate. SMEs enjoy faster access to credit as their applications will be processed for approval from the first business day after submission. Since its launch in Singapore, Funding Societies has served nearly 2,000 SMEs, with Elevate being their first corporate card. These businesses operate within a range of sectors including construction; information and communications; manufacturing; professional, scientific and technical; and wholesale and retail trade.

The unified SME digital finance platform is exploring to introduce Elevate in its other markets too. This will benefit SMEs facing challenges accessing credit to make payments for their business expenditures. Combining Elevate or other cards SMEs have with CardUp, SMEs will be able to use their cards in places that do not accept cards, and facilitate collections from their customers. CardUp’s payments solutions will be introduced in stages across the other markets that Funding Societies operates in the next two years.

Milestones in Malaysia

In May 2022, Funding Societies introduced its first Shariah-compliant Trade Financing solution based on Commodity Murabahah via Tawarruq, allowing SMEs to access a credit line of up to RM1 million - at zero collateral. We are working to launch our Shariah-compliant micro & term financing this month, expanding our Shariah financing propositions across our product offerings, in line with our focus to grow our leadership in Islamic Finance. On the investor side, the FinTech platform introduced its Guaranteed Investment Notes (GIN) which provide investors with a return of up to 8% p.a. Through GIN, investors can enjoy consistent principal and interest returns for their investment starting as low as RM100. An appointed guaranteeing entity maintains the capital and cash reserve buffers to ensure investors are repaid timely when issuers are delinquent or default on payments.