Funding Societies

Funding Societies Pte Ltd[1]
TypePrivate Limited[1]
IndustrySME Digital Financing, Alternative Investment, Payments
FoundedFebruary 2015[1]
FounderKelvin Teo, Reynold Wijaya[2]
HeadquartersSingapore[1]
Area served
Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam
BrandsFunding Societies, Modalku
Number of employees
500+
Websitewww.fundingsocieties.com

Funding Societies is a Southeast Asian digital financing platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), headquartered in Singapore. It was the first such platform in Singapore to engage an escrow agency to independently and safely manage investors’ funds.[3] In Indonesia it is known as Modalku (which means My Capital in the Indonesian language). Since its launch, it has disbursed more than US$2.6 billion in business financing to MSMEs through more than 5.1 million loan transactions.[4]

History

Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya founded Funding Societies in 2015 while studying for their Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Harvard Business School.[2] Funding Societies operates an online platform that enables Small and Medium Business to seek funding for their growth from a pool of investors, through digital lending. The standard loan period ranges from 3 months to 1 year and borrowers can loan up to SGD$2,000,000. In the first month of launching, they received a total of SGD$3 million loan applications of which about SGD$250,000 was disbursed.[5]

In January 2016, Funding Societies launched Modalku, which means "My Capital" in Bahasa Indonesia to reach out to SMEs in the Indonesian Market.[6] In November 2016, Funding Societies Malaysia became one of 6 licensed SME lending platforms in Malaysia recognised and regulated by the Securities Commission.[7]

In 2020, Funding Societies and Razer Fintech jointly announced their partnership to offer short-term business financing to merchants under Razer Merchant Services (RMS).[8]

Funding Societies expanded to Thailand, in February 2021.[9]

Series A Funding

Funding Societies raised S$10 million in series A funding in August 2016 led by Sequoia India and Alpha JWC Ventures.[10]

Series B funding

In April 2018, just slightly over three years old, Funding Societies raised US$25 million in their Series B round of funding,[11] led by Softbank Ventures Korea, an early-stage venture capital arm of Softbank Group famous for its US$100 billion Vision Fund. Their existing investors Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures (Indonesia) and Golden Gate Ventures together with new Venture Capitalists Qualgro and LINE Ventures also participated in this round.

Partnerships

Funding Societies has secured the following partnerships:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "FUNDING SOCIETIES PTE. LTD". SGP Business.com. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 "This lending platform was conceived in Boston but born in Singapore". Sbr.com.sg. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  3. ↑ "Funding Societies entrusts crowdfunding funds with MAS-registered Trustee". Cio-asia.com. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  4. ↑ Shu, Catherine (2022-02-16). "SME lender Funding Societies raises $144M led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, plus $150M in debt lines". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-08-29.
  5. ↑ "Peer-to-peer lending platforms seek new ways to increase investor confidence". Channelnewsasia.com. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "Homegrown Start-Up Modalku Aims to Help SMEs With Crowdfunded Loans - Jakarta Globe". Jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com. Archived from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  7. ↑ Goh, Thean Eu (November 3, 2016). "Malaysia first to regulate P2P financing, after SC introduced six P2P operators". Digital News Asia. Retrieved 4 March 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  8. ↑ Chong, Claudia (29 September 2020). "Razer, Funding Societies partner to provide merchant loans". www.businesstimes.com.sg. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  9. ↑ "Funding Societies, SEA's leading digital financing platform, launches in Thailand to support SMEs". Bangkok Post. 15 February 2021.
  10. ↑ "Funding Societies raises S$10 million in Series A funding". The Asian Banker. 4 August 2016. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  11. ↑ "Funding Societies, a Southeast Asian lending platform, gets $25M Series B led by Softbank Ventures Korea". TechCrunch. 17 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  12. ↑ "Two Harvard Students Are Changing Lending in Southeast Asia". Bloomberg.com. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
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