Funding Societies launches suite of Islamic Financing solutions in Malaysia

By Leandra Monteiro

Funding Societies, a unified SME digital finance platform in Southeast Asia, has launched its comprehensive Islamic Financing product collection, a complete suite of Shariah-compliant financing solutions.

The new solutions are designed to meet the needs of creditworthy, underserved Malaysian MSMEs seeking to grow their business. These Islamic financing solutions include Business Term Financing-i, Micro Financing-i, and Invoice Financing-i.

Chai Kien Poon, Country Head of Funding Societies Malaysia said, “Following market feedback, we observed demand for Islamic finance and Muslim entrepreneurs’ need for Shariah-compliant financing. Islamic finance is also appealing to non-Muslims given its emphasis on fairness and transparency in fees and charges. Besides that, the introduction of our Islamic Financing aligns with Malaysia’s aspirations to be the leader in Islamic finance as well as focus on the Islamic digital economy and FinTech.”

Interested SMEs can apply for these financing solutions online – seamlessly, anywhere and anytime. Through its digital proposition, along with zero collateral requirements, Funding Societies can avail financing to MSMEs much quicker compared to traditional financial institutions.

“Besides launching our Islamic financing proposition, we have developed Shariah-compliant investment products for our investors. This allows investors to diversify their investments while joining us to support a critical segment of the Malaysian economy. We have seen very encouraging demand from investors (retail, high net worth individuals and institutions) and look forward to working with financial institutions to offer Shariah-compliant investments to their customers,” added Chai.

Funding Societies has been operating in Malaysia since 2016 and has provided financing to thousands of SMEs in the country. The FinTech platform has disbursed more than RM2 billion in financing in Malaysia since its inception. After its soft launch in May 2022, the Shariah-compliant financing propositions have seen encouraging take-up from SMEs.