Singapore – Following the company’s commitment to enhancing financial accessibility to MSMEs, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, in collaboration with CGC Digital, has recently announced a strategic investment in Funding Societies, a small and medium enterprise digital finance platform in Southeast Asia.
The investment targets expansion in areas beyond Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, and Johor, with plans to serve more than 25, 000 MSMEs across Malaysia by the end of 2025. This move intends to provide better financial access, spur growth, and facilitate scalability, contributing to job creation and income development for the individuals employed by these businesses.
This initiative is also accompanied by the company’s goal to extend the reach of Islamic financing solutions introduced in Malaysia earlier this year.
Khazanah’s investment is in line with its Dana Impak mandate, a key component of its Advancing Malaysia strategy. This investment aligns with the government’s vision of improving the performance of MSMEs by providing increased access to financing, fostering opportunities, and driving socioeconomic growth in rural, semi-urban, and underserved communities with limited access to financial services.
The collaboration with CGC Digital, on the other hand, is aimed at influencing the Malaysian MSME ecosystem, given Khazanah’s simultaneous investment in funding societies.
In particular, this collaboration encompasses digital guarantee products on the platform, extending sustained support to Malaysian micro and small businesses in securing long-term financing. With a digital-first approach and leveraged alternative data, the digital guarantee product aims to provide micro and small businesses with more extensive and cost-effective access to financing.
Speaking about this feat, Dato’ Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir, managing director at Khazanah, said, “The investment in funding societies reflects our commitment to fostering financial inclusion and bridging the funding gap, especially within the MSME community. Being the backbone of Malaysia’s economy and contributing nearly half of the nation’s employment, MSMEs are both critical and critically underserved. Hence, this investment aligns with our mission of contributing to nation-building and socioeconomic growth.”.
Yushida Husin, CEO at CGC Digital, also expressed her delight with the recent collaboration, stating, “CGC Digital sees this investment as a strategic win for Malaysian MSMEs. We share Dana Impak’s vision and believe that, by working together with Khazanah, CGC Digital can advance financial inclusion among underserved and unserved MSMEs in the digital ecosystem.
“CGC Digital seeks to push the envelope by developing a suite of innovative digital guarantee products for thin-file MSMEs that can be offered together with Funding Societies’ financing products to increase their chance of obtaining much-needed financing,” she added.
Speaking about the strategic investment, on the other hand, Datuk Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak, board member at CGC Digital and president and CEO of CGC Digital’s parent company, Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad, shared his sentiment as well, saying, “By joining forces with Khazanah and Funding Societies, this strategic investment by CGC Digital shows CGC Group’s commitment to taking Malaysian MSMEs, especially thin-file MSMEs, to the next level.”
Kelvin Teo, co-founder and group CEO at Funding Societies, said, “We are honoured to receive support from Khazanah and CGC Digital, who share our conviction to impact MSMEs. This is a testament to our commitment towards extending credit to reach more underserved MSMEs. We would also progressively offer MSMEs more cash flow management solutions to power their growth.”
“This is where funding societies seek to step in by serving the region’s MSMEs’ cash management challenges and needs with our extensive reach and broad range of short-term financing solutions,” Teo concluded.
