Funding Societies: Profitability in 2024, Impact of Digital Banks, and Potential Exit Strategies

According to the Statistics Department, Malaysia’s SME contribution to the country’s GDP was around 38% in 2018. However, access to finance looks to be a key constraint for SMEs to grow. Enter Funding Societies - the largest SME digital financing platform in Southeast Asia. The platform has disbursed RM12.9 billion across more than 5 million notes in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand since its establishment in 2015.

In 2023, Funding Societies marked several milestones, such as introducing their Islamic Financing solutions to help expand their customer and funding base, to their partnership with the Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia (CGC) that will provide eligible SMEs access to longer-term financing and preferential interest rates.

On this episode of Open for Business, we speak to the Co-Founders of Funding Societies, CEO Kelvin Teo and COO Wong Kah Meng, about what started them down this path, what it was like building this regional platform, the role of Funding Societies in the financing ecosystem, and what the vision ahead looks like for Funding Societies.

Among other things, we get into:

• The Journey of Funding Societies

• The Challenges of Raising Funds

• The Role of Alternative Data Scoring in Lending

• The Evolution of Funding Societies' Product Mix

• The Impact of Digital Banks on Funding Societies

• Funding Societies' Partnerships and Collaborations

• The Business Strategy and Future Plans of Funding Societies

• The Pathway to Profitability for Funding Societies

• The Funding Strategy of Funding Societies

• The Potential Exit Strategies for Funding Societies