Funding Societies | Modalku, a Southeast Asian SME digital finance platform, has raised a US$25 million equity investment from Cool Japan Fund (CJF), Japan’s sovereign wealth fund.
This marks CJF’s first investment in a fintech company in the region.
The investment will be used to strengthen Funding Societies‘ core business of SME financing across its five markets (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam) and to further expand its payments business.
The company plans to use the capital to enhance its receivables and financing solutions, improve payment processing for SMEs, and further digitize its lending operations through technology and AI.
This partnership between Funding Societies and CJF aims to support Japanese companies expanding into Southeast Asia by providing financial services and fostering positive commercial relations with local SMEs.
This initiative aligns with the growing interest of Japanese companies in the Southeast Asian market, with ASEAN countries making up half of the top 10 promising countries for overseas business development in a recent survey.
Funding Societies has reported strong momentum in its operations, including a strategic investment from Maybank earlier this year and a credit facility renewal with HSBC’s ASEAN Growth Fund.
Since its inception, the company has provided over US$4 billion in financing to approximately 100,000 SMEs and processed an annualised gross transaction value of US$1.4 billion through its payments platform.
Kenichi Kawasaki, President and CEO of Cool Japan Fund, said,
“We are excited to be backing Funding Societies through this investment. Their track record of supporting SMEs in Southeast Asia well places them to help Japanese companies overcome challenges when entering new overseas markets – particularly in this region.
With the shift of interest from Japanese firms steering towards Southeast Asia, we believe our partnership with Funding Societies through this investment will grow the overseas demand of Japanese products and services, in turn, benefitting Japan’s economy as well as the local SMEs doing business with Japanese companies.”
Kelvin Teo, Co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies | Modalku, said,
“We’re honored for the commitment from Cool Japan to collaborate and support Japanese companies expanding overseas.
Many businesses we serve in Southeast Asia are Japanese firms, suppliers and/ or customers to them. Together with CJF, we intend to further strengthen these ties.”
Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik
