Funding Societies secures third credit facility from HSBC

By Gloria Mathias

Funding Societies | Modalku (Funding Societies), the unified digital finance platform for MSMEs in Southeast Asia, has announced the signing of the third credit facility with HSBC under its ASEAN Growth Fund.

The overall transaction, an accumulative commitment of over $100 million, also includes the two annual credit facilities extended to Funding Societies. This reaffirms HSBC’s continued support for MSMEs through the platform since 2022.

This transaction, which is among HSBC’s most extensive asset-backed secured facilities extended to digital SME lenders in Southeast Asia, will further deepen and extend funding societies’ reach to provide credit access to underserved MSME segments in the region.

Kelvin Teo, co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies said, “The continued support from a global bank such as HSBC is a testament to its commitment to supporting the development of digital platform businesses such as ours and MSMEs as we ride through two decades of high interest rates impacting the global economy. This enables us further to explore scalable debt financing for growth and profitability and bolster financial inclusion for the underbanked and underserved SMEs in the region.”

As part of its ASEAN Growth Fund strategy, this transaction underlines a scalable solution to allow and enable digital lenders like Funding Societies to raise additional equity capital and debt financing through different channels. Furthermore, HSBC will act as the structuring bank, lender, account bank, FX counterparty, facility, and security agent in providing a scalable and pan-regional financing solution to support Funding Societies’ business expansion in the region.

Harish Venkatesan, Head of Corporates and Business Banking, HSBC Singapore, said, “As an early-starter and a leading MSME digital financing player in ASEAN, we are pleased to provide our third credit facility for Funding Societies, cumulatively in excess of US$100 million. This will enable us to continue supporting its efforts to provide financing support to micro, small, and medium enterprises, which 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 businesses and for the underlying MSMEs in the region through the HSBC ASEAN Growth Fund.”