P2P lender Funding Societies nets US$25m Series B funding led by Softbank Ventures Korea

PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) lending platform Funding Societies announced on Wednesday that it has raised U$25 million in Series B funding in a round led by Softbank Ventures Korea, a venture capital arm of billionaire Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group.

Existing investors Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures (Indonesia) and Golden Gate Ventures also participated in the oversubscribed funding round, as did venture capital firm Qualgro and LINE Ventures.

Founded in 2015, Funding Societies - which goes by Modalku in Indonesia - is headed by Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya and describes itself as a digital lending platform which helps to connect small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia with retail and institutional lenders.

In a media statement, the startup said the recent Series B funding was the "largest funding round" raised by a South-east Asian P2P lending platform.

The company also added that its platform had crossed the S$100 million mark in crowdfunded SME loans in January this year, marking a "300 per cent growth of its loan book" from the same period in 2016.

Mr Teo, Funding Societies' co-founder and chief executive, said he was "grateful for the confidence bestowed by our lenders, SMEs, team, partners, regulators, as well as early and new marquee investors".

"We will continue to enable growth for SMEs and create wealth for lenders," he said.