KUALA LUMPUR, 26 June 2024 – Funding Societies, the largest unified SME digital finance platform in Malaysia & Southeast Asia has extended its partnership with Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC) to launch a RM30 million Islamic SME Portfolio Guarantee (SME PG-i) Scheme to accelerate the growth of Malaysian SMEs by facilitating easier access to financing.

The partnership builds on CGC’s first Portfolio Guarantee programme with Funding Societies of RM10 million that was launched in April last year. In addition to a higher allocation, the SME `PG-i scheme has been enhanced to provide working capital financing to a broader segment of underserved SMEs through Funding Societies leading Islamic digital financing solutions. Eligible SMEs will continue to have access to longer term financing and enjoy preferential interest rates, lowest among Funding Societies’ existing portfolio of financing. . 

Kelvin Teo, Co-founder & Group Chief Executive Officer, Funding Societies | Modalku remarked, “The Securities Commission in its Catalysing MSME and MTC Access to the Capital Market: 5 Year Roadmap (2024-2028) estimates that the MSME financing gap has widened to RM290 billion in 2022 from the earlier projection of RM90 billion. It is imperative that stakeholders within the ecosystem collaborate to offer innovative solutions that can better complement traditional financing sources. On this front, we are delighted to further strengthen our partnership with CGC with this additional tranche.”

Teo added, “The Islamic SME Portfolio Guarantee Scheme is a continuation of Funding Societies’ product roadmaps to scale our Shariah-compliant proposition to support creditworthy Malaysian SMEs of all sizes to thrive, contributing to Malaysia’s leadership in Islamic finance and ambition to be a global leader in Islamic Fintech”.

President & Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak mentioned, “In CGC’s pursuit to provide more MSMEs with access to financing, we launched a RM10 million PG in April 2023 with Funding Societies which has received encouraging response from unserved and underserved Malaysian MSMEs. Given the success of the first tranche, I am pleased that CGC launched a second tranche of RM30 million Islamic PG with Funding Societies. This initiative is in line with CGC’s 5-Year Strategic Plan 2021-2025 and meets our objectives to partner MSMEs through life stages by providing E2E financial offerings and become a digitally savvy organisation to propel scale and speed of MSMEs’ impact.”

The SME PG agreement was signed by Wong Kah Meng, Group Chief Operating Officer, Funding Societies | Modalku and Co-Founder of Funding Societies Malaysia together with Sean Tan, CGC’s Chief Business Officer. It was witnessed by Teo and Datuk Mohd Zamree.

For more information on the SME Portfolio Guarantee or Funding Societies' Business Term Financing facility, please visit https://fundingsocieties.com.my/term-financing.