KUALA LUMPUR, 29 May 2024 - Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s largest unified small and medium enterprise (SME) digital finance platform, has partnered with Good Foodie Media Sdn. Bhd. (“Foodie”), the No. 1 Lifestyle Focused Digital Media company in Southeast Asia, to provide instalment plans to SMEs in the Foodie ecosystem. Under the partnership, food and beverage (F&B), lifestyle, and entertainment businesses can access media services up to RM50,000 via an instalment plan.

Each month, over 100 million people across the region consume content produced by Foodie’s channels; the most notable of which are KL Foodie, Penang Foodie and Singapore Foodie. Made up of a diverse team of local content creators, Foodie seeks to connect F&B businesses with discerning clientele through its brands and platforms on social media. As of 2024, Good Foodie Media is part of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) Founders Centre of Excellence (FOX) program.

Ts. Mahadhir Aziz, Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) said, “We in MDEC are pleased to support the collaboration between Funding Societies and Good Food Media that provides funding aids to SMEs as they enhance their digital capabilities in alignment with the national strategic initiative, Malaysia Digital (MD). As a participant in MDEC’s Founders Centre of Excellence (FOX) Programme, which supports high-growth tech companies, Good Foodie Media has benefited from MDEC’s assistance in obtaining MD status and joining the DE Rantau ecosystem. This collaboration enabled Good Foodie Media to help 250 food and beverage micro and small entrepreneurs market their products on their platform”.

Chai Kien Poon, Country Head, Funding Societies Malaysia, remarked, “Malaysia’s services sector saw its total revenue increase to RM2.3 trillion in 2023, an 8.4 per cent rise compared to 2022’s RM2.1 trillion, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) reported. However, there are sub-sectors that have not yet surpassed the pre-pandemic (2019) revenue value, namely food and beverage (-1.4 percent); and arts, entertainment and recreation (-24.4 percent). Access to both cash flow and digital marketing and advertising solutions are essential to help these businesses, particularly SMEs, to continue recovering post pandemic. Funding Societies’ partnership with Good Foodie Media combines the two key ingredients to better serve and scale creditworthy, underserved SMEs in this industry.”

Good Foodie Media founder and CEO, Lim Pinn Yang, said, “At Foodie, our core value is to help SMEs in Malaysia digitalise their marketing and commerce. Since 2017, we've helped many businesses in the country share their story online. Aside from Editor-selected free coverage, we offer affordable digital marketing packages and advertising solutions to SMEs.

“Many of our merchants see their revenue double or triple after our coverage. Through this new partnership, we want to further improve the accessibility of our packages for new businesses. Now, when they engage Foodie for advertisement, they can "buy-now-and-pay-later", utilising their generated revenue to pay off our packages on a monthly instalment basis. We look forward to partnering up with Funding Societies and bringing more SMEs in Malaysia to light.” 

Under the partnership, businesses can purchase content services from Foodie on a 3-month instalment plan up to RM50,000. SMEs only need to submit 2 sets of documents – identification documents (directors and company) and 6 months bank statements to apply for the Shariah compliant instalment plan digitally.

To be eligible for this instalment plan, SMEs must meet the following requirements:

• Registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) as one of the following: a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a private limited company (non-subsidiary of listed companies), or an unlisted public limited company with at least 30% Malaysian ownership;

• Have been in operation for at least 6 months; and

• Have a minimum annual revenue of RM60,000

Together, Good Foodie Media and Funding Societies hope to empower Malaysian businesses in enhancing their digital presence thus expanding their reach, fostering growth, and building brand awareness in the marketplace.

With more than 50% market share in Malaysia, Funding Societies leads the SME digital financing industry via their tailored financing solutions befitting the varied business needs of SMEs. With a fully online onboarding process, the platform addresses typical challenges faced by SMEs when obtaining financing solutions including collateral requirement, physical documentation submission and lengthy processes.

Want to get word out about your restaurant, cafe, or business? Register your interest in Foodie’s services here: https://fsmk.cc/gfmfs