Kelvin Teo, Co-founder and Group CEO, Funding Societies | Modalku
Digital finance platform Funding Societies | Modalku (Funding Societies) today announced that it has raised US$25 million in equity investment from Japan’s sovereign wealth fund Cool Japan Fund (CJF), marking the fund’s first investment into a fintech company in Southeast Asia (SEA).
The company said it will funnel the investment to deepen its core business in SME financing across its five markets (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) whilst further expanding its payments business since embarking on it in 2022.
In a press statement, Funding Societies said it will focus on helping businesses get paid faster through innovative receivables and financing solutions. It will also leverage technology and AI to digitise and automate lending origination processes.
“These initiatives and synergies between payments and lending align with the company’s objectives of achieving growth and profitability.”
The investment also cemented a partnership between Funding Societies and CJF to provide financial services to support Japanese companies.
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President and CEO of Cool Japan Fund, Kenichi Kawasaki, said, “We are excited to be backing Funding Societies through this investment. Their track record of supporting SMEs in SEA places them well in helping Japanese companies overcome challenges when entering new overseas markets – particularly in this region. With the shift of interest from Japanese firms steering towards Southeast Asia, we believe our partnership with Funding Societies through this investment will grow the overseas demand for Japanese products and services, in turn, benefitting Japan’s economy as well as the local SMEs doing business with Japanese companies.”
Annually, Japanese direct investment in the ASEAN region averaged about US$18.6 billion, with approximately 15,000 business establishments set up by Japanese companies in the region, according to data presented at the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in 2023.
Funding Societies said it has achieved over US$4 billion in business financing, serving about 100,000 SMEs. It has processed an annualised payments gross transactions value (GTV) of over US$1.4 billion since expanding into its payments business in 2022.
Previously, the company raised a strategic equity investment from Maybank and a third annual credit facility from HSBC’s ASEAN Growth Fund, part of an accumulative commitment of over US$100 million credit facility with the bank.
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Image Credit: Funding Societies
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