Funding Societies | Modalku is the largest SME digital financing and debt investment platform in Southeast Asia. It was founded in 2015 by Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya with the vision to support the millions of underserved and unserved MSMEs in Southeast Asia through technology driven financing solutions. They leveraged debt-based funding, enabled by digital platforms that connects borrowers with investors without going through a traditional financial intermediary. Through this two-sided platform, retail investors lend to borrowers (ie. MSMEs) as a form of investment starting from S$20, and the interest earned from it serves as their returns. The FinTech is licensed in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, registered in Malaysia, and operates in Vietnam. It is backed by Sequoia India, Softbank Ventures Asia Corp, BRI Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures, SGInnovate, Endeavor, Qualgro, LINE, and Golden Gate Ventures, among others.

In Southeast Asia, MSMEs constitute 99% of enterprises and contribute towards 3 out of 4 jobs in the region. Despite this, funding remains a big challenge for them because they have a low to zero credit track record and lack of assets to pledge, failing to meet the credit criteria of traditional financial institutions. As a result, there is a US$320 billion MSME funding gap throughout Southeast Asia today according to the World Bank IFC’s estimates. This means 51% of the region’s MSMEs remain largely underserved. Today, the FinTech serves nearly 100,000 MSMEs and 200,000 retail investors in Southeast Asia.

With the purpose of serving the underserved SMEs of Southeast Asia and creating “Stronger SMEs, Stronger Societies”, Funding Societies has leveraged its MSME growth financing technique to offer unsecured business financing ranging from S$500 to S$2 million through quick and efficient loan disbursal and customisable financing options. This is done in order to cater to a range of micro to medium enterprises who have diverse business needs. Funds can also be disbursed as fast as on the same day.

Funding Societies ensures financial inclusion for retail investors as well, with a very low minimum investment of just S$20, making it easy for individuals from every walk of life to create a diversified investment portfolio. Investors can track their investment activity and returns on their personalised mobile and web dashboards.

Funding Societies’ proprietary technology ensures that credit underwriting is automated, where micro loan requests require very minimal documentation, and approvals as well as disbursals can be done as early as the same day. In order to benefit more MSMEs, Funding Societies’ SilkRoad is a trade finance software that enhances economic trade by optimising working capital and simplifying operations for businesses and their suppliers. It is a tech-driven solution that automates the documentation of high volumes of invoices at once and allows business owners to track the statuses of invoices and loan repayments on a single centralised dashboard without needing human intervention. This solution is like no other available in the market.

In 7 years, it has helped finance over 5.1 million business loans with over S$3.7 billion in funding. It was given the MAS FinTech Award in 2016, the Global SME Excellence Award at the United Nations’ ITU Telecom World in 2017, KPMG Fintech100 in 2018, Brands for Good in 2019, and in 2020 recognised by IDC as amongst the 5 fastest growing FinTechs in Singapore, won the Stevie® Award for Innovation in Technology, and named ASEAN Startup of the Year by Global Startup Awards. In 2021, it was honourably mentioned as Responsible Digital Innovator of the Year by SME Finance Forum.