Malaysia’s Kenanga invests US$7M in CapBay’s P2P Islamic financing platform

CapBay, a Malaysian multi-bank supply chain finance and P2P financing platform, has secured RM30 million (US$7 million) investment from Kenanga Capital Islamic (KCI), a subsidiary of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad (KIBB).

The investment will help CapBay grow its Shariah-compliant supply chain finance arm CapBay Islamic.

“The injection of funds will help accelerate the growth of Malaysian SMEs. With the launch of our Islamic receivables and working capital financing solutions, we believe that this will add another dimension to our efforts in supporting the SMEs in the country,” said Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff, chairman of CapBay.

Also Read: CapBay bags US$20M Series A to scale its multi-bank supply chain finance, P2P financing platform

Founded in 2017, CapBay enables SMEs to obtain flexible and cost-effective financing through a digital platform. To date, it claims to have financed more than 14,000 transactions worth over RM1.4 billion (US$330 million), serving over 800 SMEs.

It has partnered with several large corporates, banks and institutional investors to offer the solution.

In January, CapBay announced a US$20 million in Series A round from Singapore-based KK Fund and several Malaysian angel investors.

Last year, CapBay acquired a 49 per cent stake in KCI to create an Islamic supply chain finance fintech. KCI benefits from predicting risk in each transaction beyond just financial statement analysis and utilises machine learning to assess thousands of data points such as historical relationships, payments, contract quality and other patterns. This data-driven approach helps invigorate the Islamic supply chain finance solution for the underbanked.

“We have been collaborating with CapBay to develop an Islamic fintech to serve a wide range of SMEs through a digital platform that enables a faster and more convenient process,” said Chay Wai Leong, group MD of KIBB.

As the SME financing market continues to grow rapidly, the demand for a Shariah-compliant option has increased. According to the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia, it predicted that half of Malaysia’s banking assets to be Islamic by 2030 as the industry’s growth outpaces conventional banking.

Also Read: Kenanga Investors launches frontier fund to connect retail investors with hard-to-reach early-stage startups

“The adoption rate of Islamic financing in Malaysia is growing: this is a clear reflection of the demand for Shariah-compliant products in the country. We noticed many of our clients seeking an Islamic alternative to our products, and we are catering to this growing demand,” added Mohd Shariff.

A report by Fintech News Malaysia shows that out of 233 fintech firms operating in Malaysia, CapBay is part of the small 4 per cent that are Islamic fintech companies.

—

The post Malaysia’s Kenanga invests US$7M in CapBay’s P2P Islamic financing platform appeared first on e27.