SoftBank leads US$294m fundraise for Singapore lender Funding Societies
FUNDING Societies has raised US$144 million in an oversubscribed Series C+ equity round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and borrowed US$150 million from institutional lenders across Europe, the US and Asia, securing a total funding of US$294 million.
From the fresh equity funds, US$16 million is set aside to execute share buybacks of company stock ownership plans from former and existing employees, according to Funding Societies in a statement on Tuesday (Feb 16).
New investors joined the company's equity funding round, including Vietnamese tech unicorn VNG Corporation, Asia-based global investor EDBI, Rapyd Ventures, Indies Capital, K3 Ventures and Ascend Vietnam Ventures, it said.
Funding Societies also announced it started operating in Vietnam at the end of 2021 and is working with regulators to obtain a licence.
The digital financing platform is licensed and registered in 4 countries - Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It has plans to expand to more locations in South-east Asia within the next 12 months.
The fintech company, known as Modalku in Indonesia, allows micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in South-east Asia to access short-term loans funded by retail and institutional investors.
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To date, Funding Societies said it has disbursed over US$2 billion to MSMEs across over 5 million loans. It previously reported in November 2020 to have disbursed more than US$1.3 billion across 3.3 million loans.
Last October, the company raised US$18 million in loans from 3 Singapore financial institutions, as part of its US$45 million Series C round.
Funding Societies was founded in 2015 by Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya out of Harvard Business School to address the region's US$300 billion financing gap.
"A common misconception is that we compete with banks. The reality is we 'compete' with savings, friends and families, and personal credit cards," said Teo, Funding Societies' group chief executive officer.
The digital lender is backed by SGInnovate, BRI Ventures, Endeavor, Sequoia India, Softbank Ventures Asia and Qualgro Partners.
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