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KUALA LUMPUR: Funding Societies Malaysia Sdn Bhd has raised US$144 million (RM605 million) in an oversubscribed Series C+ equity round to fuel expansion plans in Southeast Asia.

This round of capital raising exercise was led by Japanese venture capital fund SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with new investors, notably Vietnamese tech giant VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, Asia-based global investor EDBI, Indies Capital, K3 Ventures, and Ascend Vietnam Ventures.

Funding Societies, Southeast Asia's largest SME digital financing platform, also received US$150 million (RM630 million) in debt lines from institutional

lenders across Europe, the United States, and Asia, some of which have been drawn down since 2021.

This comes on the back of its US$45 million (RM189 million) Series C raised

between 2020 and 2021.

Co-founder and group chief executive officer Kelvin Teo said the company started Funding Societies Modalku to empower small and medium enterprises (SME) by addressing their most pressing issue: access to funding, particularly unsecured credit.

"Having proven our artificial intelligence (AI)-led credit capabilities in an unprecedented financial crisis, we look to serve SMEs even better with neobanking and deeper regional presence in Southeast Asia," he said in a statement.

The funds strengthen Funding Societies' position as a market leader in digital finance and accelerate its expense management and business-to-business (B2B) payments services for Southeast Asia's micro, small, and medium companies (MSMEs).

The latest fundraise also provides US$16 million (RM67 million) to former and existing employees via the company's stock option plan, in the form of share buyback.

Co-founder and chief executive officer Wong Kah Meng said having emerged stronger through the pandemic, the company is expanding its suite of digital financial services offerings to elevate the financial well-being of unserved and underserved MSMEs in Malaysia.

Founded in 2015, Funding Societies strife to empower MSMEs in Southeast Asia,  addressing MSMEs' key pain points for growth, starting with the region's US$300 billion (RM1.26 trillion) financing gap.

Funding Societies offers financing up to RM2 million and differentiated itself as a one-stop shop in SME financing with an AI-led credit model and value-added products to under-served businesses.

The company is now licensed in four countries across the region - Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and operating in Vietnam.

To date, it has disbursed over US$2 billion (RM8.7 billion) in business financing to MSMEs through more than 5 million financing deals in Southeast Asia.

Funding Societies' annualised loan origination has exceeded US$1 billion (RM4.2 billion) in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2021.

In Malaysia, it has recently announced a significant achievement of RM1 billion disbursements in business financing across more than 17,000 financing deals, directly

uplifting thousands of local SMEs.

Since 2019, Funding Societies has expanded its suite of financial services beyond lending and plans to bring its operations to more locations in Southeast Asia within the next 12 months.

Source: https://www.nst.com.my/business/2022/02/771878/funding-societies-raised-rm605mil-oversubscribed-series-c-equity-round-fuel