Funding Societies partners Haulio to provide ready credit to hauliers

Singapore

SOUTH-EAST Asia's largest SME digital financing platform, Funding Societies, is partnering Singapore's leading haulier network, Haulio, to speed up payments to the latter's fleet of haulier partners across the region, according to a joint release on Tuesday.

Pre-approved credit facilities from Funding Societies are now available on Haulio's digital platform, which allows Haulio's partners to enjoy access to early payment services in as short as seven days, as compared to the industry's standard of 30 days or more, according to the release.

The companies noted that this collaboration is the first of its kind across the fintech and haulage sectors and aims to benefit more than 90 per cent of hauliers in Singapore within Haulio's network.

Co-founder and chief executive officer of Haulio, Alvin Ea, said: "We hope that through this partnership with Funding Societies, our hauliers will enjoy improved cash flow and greater flexibility in managing their operations, and that it will also set the stage for us to scale this value-added service to our fast-growing regional markets."

Under this supplier financing programme, haulier partners from Haulio who request payment from Funding Societies are already pre-approved for a credit facility with the fintech company. Once Haulio receives the invoice, it will send a payment instruction to Funding Societies which will then be triggered to expedite disbursal of the invoice amount to the haulier almost instantly.

Currently, the traditional logistics industry has inefficiencies which can result in payment delays to hauliers of up to 120 days with larger corporates, which creates more obstacles to the sector's pay-per-use model, the companies said.

Head of partnerships at Funding Societies, Shrawan Saraogi said: "South-east Asia is rising to become the next global economic powerhouse and we believe this partnership with Haulio will boost the region's trade tremendously."

Haulio closed its pre-series A round earlier this year, and is Singapore's largest container haulage platform which uses technology to optimise the usage of haulage trucks and drivers. To date, the digital haulage platform has moved over a million containers or twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and processed over S$16 million payout to its haulier partners.

On the other hand, Funding Societies offers a range of growth financing solutions to SMEs ranging from S$5,000 to S$2 million, and is able to disburse funds as quickly as within 24 hours by leveraging technology.

Aside from the logistics sector, Funding Societies' suite of SME growth financing products serve across industries such as food and beverage, healthcare, manufacturing and medical supplies.