Tag: Funding Societies

Singapore – Two financial services platforms dedicated to SMEs in Asia – Opal and Funding Societies – have partnered to offer Opal’s ecosystem of clients and partners in Singapore a range of financing solutions. Funding Societies specializes in providing short-term financing to SMEs, and needless to say that this will be one of the main offerings of the partnership. 

Opal is currently operating solely in Singapore and it aims to be the unified account for all of SMEs’ payments and loans in the country. It eyes to help businesses accelerate growth by simplifying cross-border payments, maximizing cost savings, and providing easier and cheaper access to trade financing & credit facilities.

Under the partnership with Funding Societies, Opal will offer Funding Societies’ range of solutions such as micro loans, term loans, and invoice financing, at a relatively lower rate and a quicker processing time. Further, to reduce the financial burden on SMEs in Singapore, Opal and Funding Societies will reduce processing fees on all disbursals up to 50% of the loan amount and offer a full waiver of the facility fee on all line products. This is alongside Opal’s main solutions of cross-border money transfer and multi-currency accounts.

Lim Ming Wang, co-founder of Opal, refers to a study by Singapore’s MAS where growth of businesses in the Lion City is forecast to be robust but uneven in 2021. 

“As a company that is focused on SMEs in Singapore, we want to be able to assist businesses at their time of growth who are looking for solutions to strengthen their cash flow,” said Lim. 

Lim adds, “We are excited about this partnership as businesses can now have access to multi-currency management, payments, and financing solutions from a single platform on Opal. As our technology is driven by the interconnectivity of these different financial-business solutions, companies will get even better rates and faster turnaround times.”

Meanwhile, Shrawan Saraogi, head of partnerships and products at Funding Societies, commented, “As a FinTech founded with the mission to uplift economies, we believe in helping SMEs obtain access to financing solutions that are easy and fair. We want to help them by providing the impetus for growth. I believe this partnership is ideal, as we would be able to support Opal’s ecosystem of clients and partners with our wide range of growth financing solutions.”

Opal is licensed in Singapore, but has clients and client counterparties in Europe, the US, Israel, and the rest of SEA.

Singapore – Funding Societies, the largest SME digital financing platform in SEA, has partnered with Singapore’s hauler network Haulio, to speed up payments of hauler partners across the country. 

Funding Societies is an SME digital financing platform that offers growth financing solutions to creditworthy SMEs ranging from S$5,000 to S$2M. By leveraging technology, the platform is able to disburse funds in as quick as 24 hours. 

The partnership is the first of its kind across the fintech and haulage sectors, which aims to benefit more than 90% of haulers in Singapore within Haulio’s network. Through this, Funding Societies’ pre-approved credit facilities will now be available on Haulio’s digital platform, allowing Haulio’s partners to enjoy access to early payment services in as quick as seven days, in comparison to the industry standard of 30 days and more.

According to the platform, the partnership comes at the right juncture as the logistics sector remains a key pillar of Singapore’s economy, contributing 1.4% to the nation’s GDP in 2019. 

“The traditional logistics industry is still fragmented by complex and inefficient business processes, which means that payment delays to haulers could go up to 120 days with larger corporates, creating more obstacles to the sector’s pay-per-use model,” said Funding Societies. 

Shrawan Saraogi, the head of partnerships at Funding Societies, said, “We leverage our digital platform to bridge the huge financial gap that small businesses still face today. Southeast Asia is rising to become the next global economic powerhouse and we believe this partnership with Haulio will boost the region’s trade tremendously.”

Meanwhile, Haulio’s Co-founder and CEO Alvin Ea, shared that it has always been Haulio’s mission to uplift the industry by empowering our ecosystem of users with technology. 

“We hope that through this partnership with Funding Societies, our haulers will enjoy improved cash flow and greater flexibility in managing their operations, as well as set the stage for us to scale this value-added service to our fast-growing expansion markets regionally,” said Ea.

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

Singapore – Funding Societies, a Southeast Asia-centric digital financing platform for regional SMEs, is expanding its operations to Thailand, marking its fourth market since the platform’s establishment six years ago. Currently, the platform operates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

With the market expansion, Funding Societies will be addressing the US$250B SME credit gap that exists in ASEAN’s biggest economies – Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Funding Societies has disbursed over US$1.4B in financing across more than 65,000 SMEs throughout the region and is prepared to provide Thai SMEs with full access to its short-term customizable financing solutions, which are funded by retail and institutional investors.

The platform will also operate closely under the debt-crowdfunding license given by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission. This expansion comes after more than one year of working with Thai regulators and planning for market entry.

Co-founder and group CEO of Funding Societies, Kelvin Teo (left), said, “Funding Societies’ vision has always been to financially enable growth for SMEs, while growing wealth for investors. Having built a market-leading presence in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, we’re excited to bring our vision to Thailand and launch today. We’ll also be able to better support Singapore companies expanding into Thailand and vice versa.”

Meanwhile, Varun Bhandari, country head of Funding Societies for Thailand (right), commented, “By leveraging technology, Funding Societies offers SMEs a new avenue of accessing business financing that is fast, affordable, and convenient. The crowdfunding landscape in the country is growing steadily and we see a lot of potential here. We look forward to driving financial inclusion in Thailand and helping to uplift the country’s economy.”