Funding Societies

Funding Societies Pte Ltd[1]
Private Limited[1]
Industry Personal Finance, Investment
Founded February 2015[1]
Founder Kelvin Teo, Reynold Wijaya[2]
Headquarters Singapore[1]
Area served
 Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia[3]
Products Peer-to-peer lending
Number of employees
 150+
Website fundingsocieties.com

Funding Societies is a South-East-Asia based peer-to-peer lending company, headquartered in Singapore. It was the first peer-to-peer lender in Singapore to engage an escrow agency to independently and safely manage investors’ funds.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cio-asia.com/resource/industries/funding-societies-entrusts-crowdfunding-funds-with-mas-registered-trustee|title=Funding Societies entrusts crowdfunding funds with MAS-registered Trustee|website=Cio-asia.com|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref>

History

Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya founded Funding Societies in 2015 while studying for their Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Harvard Business School.[2] Funding Societies operates an online platform that enables Small and Medium Business to seek funding for their growth from a pool of investors, through crowdfunding. The standard loan period ranges from 3 months to 2 years and borrowers can loan up to SGD$500,000. In the first month of launching, they have received a total of SGD$3 million loan applications which about SGD$250,000 was disbursed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/peer-to-peer-lending/2031982.html|title=Peer-to-peer lending platforms seek new ways to increase investor confidence|website=Channelnewsasia.com|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref>

In January 2016, Funding Societies launched Modalku, which means "My Capital" in Bahasa to reach out to SMEs in the Indonesian Market. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/business/homegrown-start-modalku-aims-help-smes-crowdfunded-loans|title=Homegrown Start-Up Modalku Aims to Help SMEs With Crowdfunded Loans - Jakarta Globe|website=Jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref> The company claims that SGD$7.8 million in loans had been originated through its Singapore platform up to 30 June 2016. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://fundingsocieties.com/statistics.aspx|title=Funding Societies|website=fundingsocieties.com|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref>

In February 2017, Funding Societies expanded its reach to Malaysia, starting Funding Societies Malaysia, headed by Wong Kah Meng, CEO of FSMY.

On the 19th of April 2018, Funding Societies have managed to maintain low default rates across the region, at 1.3% and disbursed more than US$110M in more than 3000 loans.

Series A Funding

Funding Societies raised S$ 10 million in series A funding in August 2016 led by Sequoia India and Alpha JWC Ventures.[4]

Series B Funding

In April 2018, just slightly over three years old, Funding Societies managed to raise US$25 Million in their Series B round of funding[5], led by Softbank Ventures Korea, an early stage venture capital arm of Softbank Group famous for its US$ 100B Vision Fund. Their existing investors Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures (Indonesia) and Golden Gate Ventures together with new Venture Capitalists Qualgro and LINE Ventures also participated in this over-subscribed round. To date, this has been the largest round of funding raised by a P2P lending platform in South-East Asia

Business model

Funding Societies provides borrowers an online application process by supplying details about themselves and the loans that they would like to request together with the required financial documents. The loans are unsecured and backed by personal guarantee of the owners of the business.

Funding Societies through their proprietary-scoring model, make credit decisions on the applications. Approved applications will be assigned a credit score based on their scoring model, which will determine the payable interest rate. The Loans can be repaid at anytime. Only Singapore or Indonesian registered businesses can apply for a loan on their respective platforms. Funding Societies for Singapore and Modalku for Indonesia.

Anyone can register as an investor to search and browse loan listings on website to select loans they want to invest into based on the profile of the borrower as provided through the factsheet. Investors can decide how much to fund each borrower, with the minimum investment at $100 per loan. Investors make money from interest and rates vary from 7%p.a to 14%p.a. Funding Societies makes money by charging borrowers an origination fee and investors a service fee.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cio-asia.com/tech/careers/funding-societies-to-provide-alternative-financing-to-smes-in-sea/|title=Funding Societies to provide alternative financing to SMEs in SEA|website=Cio-asia.com|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref>

Recognition

Funding Societies won the Tech in Asia road to Tokyo Tour (Singapore) Best Start-up award and represented Singapore in Tokyo in August 2015.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.techinasia.com/stops-tech-asia-tour-singapore-kuala-lumpur-tokyo-startups-ready|title=Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem|website=Techinasia.com|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref> It has also been selected as the inaugural batch of participants to enrol in one of the best FinTech Accelerator in Asia, The SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator which was sponsored by heavy weights such as Standard Chartered Bank, Baidu and TusPark Global Network.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mis-asia.com/tech/careers/hong-kongs-supercharger-to-help-fintech-startups-grow/|title=Hong Kong's SuperCharger to help FinTech startups grow|website=Mis-asia.com|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref> In June 2016, Funding Societies was also named the Asia's top 7 Peer-To-Peer Lending Platform by FinTech News. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://fintechnews.sg/3518/crowdfunding/asias-top-7-peer-peer-lending-platforms|title=Asia's Top 7 Peer-to-Peer Lending Platforms|date=29 June 2016|website=Fintechnews.sg|accessdate=14 November 2017}}</ref>

Partnership

Funding Societies secured a Partnership with DBS Bank in April 2016, one of the biggest banks in Asia to cross-refer borrowers. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/harvard-student-s-chance-pitch-to-ceo-hits-home-in-fintech-race|title=Two Harvard Students Are Changing Lending in Southeast Asia|date=6 April 2016|accessdate=14 November 2017|website=Bloomberg.com}}</ref>

See also

Comparison of crowdfunding services

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "FUNDING SOCIETIES PTE. LTD". SGP Business.com. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 "This P2P lending platform was conceived in Boston but born in Singapore". Sbr.com.sg. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Zieman (18 September 2017). "Peer lending for small businesses". The Star (Malaysia). Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  4. ↑ "Funding Societies raises S$10 million in Series A funding". The Asian Banker. 4 August 2016. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  5. ↑ "Funding Societies, a Southeast Asian lending platform, gets $25M Series B led by Softbank Ventures Korea". TechCrunch. 17 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
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