News and Announcements
Funding Societies Hits SGD100Million Mark in SME Crowdfunding
- Published January 24, 2018 12:00AM UTC
- Publisher Wholesale Investor
- Categories Company Updates
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Funding Societies hit the SGD100 Million in total crowdfunding loans provided to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Investors (retail/accredited and institutional) on Funding Societies’ platform earn as high as 14% returns on investments in these short-term business loans
- This is the largest amount of crowdfunded loans in Southeast Asia, putting Funding Societies in leadership position in the region.
Funding Societies made another company milestone after it crossed the SGD100 Million in total crowdfunding loans provided to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It also broke records for being the first peer-to-peer lending platform to have achieved the highest crowdfunding amount.
Southeast Asia-based company Funding Societies, which was founded in 2015, is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending company based in Singapore. It provides financing, working capital and expansion funding for underserved SMEs.
“We started Funding Societies while at Harvard to positively impact SMEs in Southeast Asia. 2017 has been a strong year, as we gained global recognition for our efforts including our loan mobile app FS Bolt and our chatbot Miyu. We’d work even closer with the SME community in 2018, in line with our motto ‘Stronger SMEs, Stronger Societies’,” Funding Societies Co-Founder and CEO Kelvin Teo said.
Funding Societies has a digital platform where SMEs can get pooled funding from institutional and retail investors. The platform can provide funding of up to SGD 1 million with reasonable interest rates for manufacturing, professional services, construction, wholesale and retail and engineering, and other industries.
Most SMEs are not able to get funding from traditional fund providers and while most of them have existing bank loans, they turn to Funding Societies for short-term and fast loans. A study conducted by Visa and Deloitte shows that in Singapore alone, the financial needs of four out of ten SMEs are not served by existing traditional financial institutions. Investors receive monthly interests paid by these SMEs as returns on their investments. Investor funds are safely managed by an escrow agency.
Funding Societies aims to provide attractive alternative asset class for all types of investors, from retail investors to institutions.
About Funding Societies Pte Ltd
Founded in 2015, Funding Societies is the leading peer-to-peer lending platform that enables growing SMEs by offering business loans which are crowdfunded by investors through a digital lending marketplace. Funding Societies is backed by Sequoia Capital, and won Monetary Authority of Singapore Fintech Award (2016), as well as ranked #1 Hottest Startup by Singapore Business Review and Top 250 FinTech companies globally by CB Insights (2017).