SME digital finance platform Funding Societies is closer to expanding its Malaysian geographical footprint and Islamic financing reach having won the backing of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional and CGC Digital, the fintech arm of Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia.
The investment amount is undisclosed, however, Funding Societies confirmed that it intends to channel the fund into expanding its Malaysian coverage to areas beyond Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor. This is in line with its target of serving over 25,000 MSMEs nationwide by the end of 2025.
Also, the digital financier specifically said it will use the investment to widen the reach of its Islamic financing solutions introduced earlier this year. It has disbursed over RM100 million (US$21.52 million) in Halal financing in Malaysia since May 2023. The goal is to have at least half of its annual loan disbursements to be Shariah compliant by 2025.
“We would also progressively offer MSMEs more cash flow management solutions to power their growth,” said Kelvin Teo, the co-founder and group CEO of Funding Societies.
Since its inception in 2015, the platform has disbursed over US$3.5 billion in financing through five million transactions to over 100,000 businesses across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Khazanah Nasional’s investment falls under its Dana Impak mandate, which also saw it investing in insurtech PolicyStreet, which recently obtained a Takaful license.