Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional has invested an undisclosed amount in Southeast Asian digital lending platform Funding Societies.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Khazanah said the investment will help it broaden financial access to businesses, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently unserved by financial institutions.
Malaysian fintech company CGC Digital Sdn Bhd, a provider of digital financial solutions for MSMEs, also invested in Funding Societies alongside Khazanah.
With these investments, Funding Societies aims to expand its Malaysian coverage to areas beyond Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, and Johor. By the end of 2025, it targets to serve more than 25,000 MSMEs across Malaysia, thereby improving MSME’s access to financing, growth, and scalability while fostering job creation and income development for those employed by these businesses.
Founded in 2015, Funding Societies has to date disbursed over $3.5 billion in business financing through 5 million transactions, impacting over 100,000 businesses across its five markets in Southeast Asia — Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Khazanah managing director Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir said that its investment reflects the fund’s commitment to fostering financial inclusion and bridging funding gaps, especially within the MSME community.
“Being the backbone of Malaysia’s economy and contributing nearly half of the nation’s employment, MSMEs are both critical and critically underserved. Hence, this investment aligns with our mission of contributing to nation-building and socioeconomic growth,” he added.
Meanwhile, co-founder and group CEO of Funding Societies, Kelvin Teo, said, “We are honoured to receive support from Khazanah and CGC Digital, who share our conviction to impact MSMEs.”
“While MSMEs represent 97% of business establishments in Malaysia and contribute 38% to the gross domestic product (GDP), this group still faces significant challenges in obtaining credit, as evidenced by the RM90 billion ($19.42 billion) financing gap in Malaysia,” he said.
Funding Societies raised some $7.5 million in debt from Norwegian state-owned investor Norfund, the company announced in November, just a month after raising $27 million in a debt funding round led by Asia-focused private credit financier AlteriQ Global.
Funding Societies is registered with the Securities Commission Malaysia as well as licensed in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, and operates in Vietnam. It is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Sequoia Capital India, Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, Samsung Ventures, BRI Ventures, Endeavor, SGInnovate, Qualgro, Golden Gate Ventures, and Penjana Kapital among others.