Vision Fund leads $144m round for Singapore lending platform
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 has led a USD 144m equity round for Singapore small business lending platform Funding Societies.
Singapore’s Indies Capital, K3 Ventures, and EDBI also participated, as did Vietnam’s VNG Corporation and Ascend Vietnam Ventures. They were joined by Sequoia Capital India, Indonesia’s BRI Ventures, and Rapyd Ventures, the VC arm of UK financial technology company Rapyd.
It coincides with confirmation that USD 150m in debt has been received from various institutions since last year. Funding Societies called the combined investment a USD 294m Series C extension, describing it in a social media post as “unprecedented by any fintech company in the region.”
The company collected about USD 45m in Series C funding during 2020 and 2021, with investments of undisclosed size coming from the likes of AMTD Singapore Solidarity Fund, Samsung Venture Investment, and 500 Startups.
Netherlands-based Lendahand committed about USD 6m September 2021. The following month, a group including Helicap Investments and an unnamed Japanese financial services group provided USD 18m in debt.
SoftBank Ventures Korea, now SoftBank Ventures Asia, led a USD 25m Series B in 2018 that included Sequoia India, Golden Gate Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures, Qualgro, and Line Ventures. A USD 7.5m Series A led by Sequoia India came in 2016 with support from Alpha JWC.
Funding Societies aims to fill a perceived USD 300bn financing gap in Southeast Asia’s small business sector by facilitating loans as small as USD 500 that can be disbursed as quickly as 24 hours. It has disbursed more than USD 2bn through some 5 million loan transactions since its inception in 2015.
The company is now licensed and registered in four countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, where it is known as Modalku. It is also operational in Vietnam.
"SMEs [small to medium-sized enterprises] across Southeast Asia have historically struggled to access institutional finance and instead been forced to mainly rely on personal funding to support growth, Greg Moon, a managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said in a statement.
“Funding Societies is establishing a bridge for these companies to access more sustainable and cheaper financing by building unique data sets on their performance and using AI-led technology to assess their creditworthiness more effectively than traditional models.”
More on Southeast Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.