Malaysian lender Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) has announced a strategic investment in Funding Societies | Modalku (Funding Societies), an unified digital finance platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Southeast Asia.
Funding Societies said in a statement on Wednesday that in conjunction with this investment, Maybank will explore collaborative synergies with Funding Societies to promote inclusivity and bridge funding gaps within the communities it serves.
The transaction represents the inaugural investment under a new initiative at Maybank to strategically invest and partner with best-in-class digitally-enabled organizations across ASEAN.
This investment forms part of Maybank’s approach to accelerate innovation to serve the MSME community.
It aligns with Maybank’s M25+ strategic thrust, aiming to accelerate digitalization through ecosystem orchestration within and beyond the banking sector.
“Maybank has consistently championed small and medium enterprises– the backbone of ASEAN economies,
“Our investment in Funding Societies underscores our commitment to driving financial inclusion, in line with our purpose of Humanising Financial Services,” said Khairussaleh Ramli, President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Maybank.
“By leveraging our banking expertise alongside Funding Societies’ innovative digital platform, Maybank is committed to fostering a robust small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) ecosystem and ensuring a brighter, more sustainable future for all,” he added.
Funding Societies Co-founder and Group Chief Executive Officer Kelvin Teo said they are honored by Maybank’s support, reflecting a shared commitment to serve MSMEs in Southeast Asia.
“This partnership reaffirms our dedication to extending credit access to underserved MSMEs that face cash flow management challenges – an area we are progressively expanding to help these businesses fulfil their business potential,” he added.
Established in 2015, Funding Societies is a regional financial technology company that specializes in providing financing to MSMEs.
Since its inception, Funding Societies has disbursed over $4 billion in business financing, positively impacting more than 100,000 businesses across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The firm is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, CGC Digital (the digital arm of the Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad), SBVA (previously SoftBank Ventures Asia), Peak XV Partners (previously Sequoia Capital India), Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, BRI Ventures, VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, Endeavor, EBDI, SGInnovate, Qualgro, and Golden Gate Ventures among others.
In recent years, the firm has made strategic milestones including its acquisition of regional digital payments platform CardUp and co-investment into Bank Index in Indonesia.
Maybank is Southeast Asia’s fourth largest bank by asset with close to 44,000 employees worldwide.
The group has an international network of some 2,600 offices in 18 countries including all ten ASEAN countries and also present in international financial centers such as London, New York, Hong Kong and Dubai.
The firm’s extensive range of products and services include consumer and corporate banking, investment banking, Islamic banking, stock broking, insurance and takaful and asset management.
Funding Societies has disbursed $64.22M in Islamic financing to MSMEs in Malaysia