FUNDING SOCIETIES SECURES 3RD HSBC FACILITY, SURPASSING RM436 MLN IN TOTAL FINANCING

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 (Bernama) -- Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s largest digital finance platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), has secured a third credit facility with HSBC under its ASEAN Growth Fund, raising its total credit facilities from HSBC to over US$100 million (RM436 million).

In a statement, Funding Societies said the transaction includes two previously extended annual credit facilities, reaffirming HSBC’s ongoing support for MSMEs through the platform since 2022.

Funding Societies’ co-founder and group chief executive officer, Kelvin Teo, said HSBC’s sustained backing allows the company to further explore scalable debt financing for growth and profitability, advancing financial inclusion for underbanked and underserved SMEs in the region.

Meanwhile, HSBC Singapore’s head of corporates and business banking, Harish Venkatesan, said this third credit facility will enable the bank to continue supporting Funding Societies' efforts to provide financing solutions to MSMEs.

“This will contribute to the building blocks of societies in the ASEAN region. We look forward to continuing support for Funding Societies as they grow their business and for the underlying MSMEs in the region through the HSBC ASEAN Growth Fund,” he added. 

Launched in March 2024, the US$1 billion HSBC ASEAN Growth Fund aims to support Singapore-based digital platforms in bolstering e-commerce across the region.

The statement noted that while the Asia-Pacific region has experienced rapid middle-class growth and expanded access to formal banking and digital commercial environments, it still faces a US$2.5 trillion (RM10.9 trillion) credit access gap, accounting for over half of the global shortfall in small business financing.

“To put it in perspective, up to 99.9 per cent of enterprises are MSMEs, contributing between 35 per cent and 69 per cent of each country’s gross domestic product,” it said.

Since its inception in 2015, Funding Societies has disbursed over US$4 billion (RM17.4 billion) in business financing, benefiting more than 100,000 businesses across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. 

Additionally, it has processed an annualised gross transaction value of US$1.4 billion (RM6.1 billion) in payments since entering the payments sector in late 2022.

-- BERNAMA