FUNDING SOCIETIES

Kelvin Teo (Singapore) and Reynold Wijaya (Indonesia) met at Harvard Business School and bonded over a shared frustration: SMEs in Southeast Asia could not get loans from banks. Traditional banks required years of financial history, collateral, and documentation that most small businesses did not have.

They founded Funding Societies in 2015 as a peer-to-peer lending platform connecting investors to SME borrowers. The platform uses technology-driven credit assessment — analyzing digital data (e-commerce sales, payment processing history, social media) to underwrite businesses that banks could not evaluate.

Lending margin. Funding Societies earns the spread between its cost of capital and the interest rates charged to SME borrowers.

The company also earns origination fees, late payment fees, and platform fees from institutional investors who fund loans through the platform. Revenue scales with loan volume.

Funding Societies Business Term Loans. Invoice Financing.

Revolving Credit Lines. Micro Loans.

Debt Investment Products (for institutional and retail investors). Multi-country platform (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam).

Multi-market expansion across Southeast Asia. Funding Societies grew by targeting the massive unserved SME lending gap in each new market.

The company acquired or partnered with local platforms to enter Indonesia (Modalku), Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Each market has different regulations but a similar problem: banks ignoring small businesses.

Credit risk in emerging markets. Lending to SMEs in Southeast Asia involves currency risk, regulatory risk, and default risk.

Economic downturns can quickly turn a healthy loan portfolio into a problem. The company must maintain credit quality while growing aggressively.

Competition from banks slowly digitizing their SME offerings.

Backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sequoia Capital India, and a wide bench of Southeast Asian investors. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the $144 million Series C+ equity round in February 2022.

Announced alongside it were $150 million in debt lines from financial institutions, which is why the headline number that February was $294 million. VNG, Rapyd Ventures, EDBI, Indies Capital, Ascend Vietnam Ventures and BRI Ventures also took part.