FUNDING Societies has obtained an undisclosed amount of strategic investment from Malaysia’s largest lender Maybank, said the digital finance platform on Wednesday (Sep 11).
As part of the tie-up, Maybank will collaborate with Funding Societies to promote inclusivity and address funding gaps within the communities it serves.
Launched in 2015, the finance platform offers financing to micro, small-and-medium enterprises (MSMEs) across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. It has since disbursed more than US$4 billion in business financing to over 100,000 businesses across the five countries, it said.
The latest investment is part of the lender’s approach to accelerate innovation by collaborating with partners such as Funding Societies to extend its outreach to MSMEs across South-east Asia. It also aims to speed up the digital transformation within and beyond the banking sector.
Khairussaleh Ramli, president and group chief executive officer of Maybank, said its banking expertise along with Funding Societies’ digital platform would foster a robust and sustainable small, and medium-sized enterprise ecosystem.
Kelvin Teo, co-founder and group CEO of Funding Societies, said the partnership will help extend credit access to enterprises that face cash-flow management challenges – an area that the platform is increasingly expanding.
In January this year, Funding Societies obtained an undisclosed amount of strategic investment from Malaysia sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional and CGC Digital, the digital arm of Credit Guarantee Corporation.
Funds from that investment were used to expand the platform’s coverage in Malaysia to areas beyond Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor.
Teo had pointed out that MSMEs represent 97 per cent of business establishments in Malaysia, and contribute 38 per cent to gross domestic product. But this group still faces significant challenges when obtaining credit.
