Funding Societies, SGeBIZ partner to help under-served SMEs in Singapore

• Innovations in SME working capital financing to see 20% growth annually
• Customers can enjoy extended credit terms or collecting payments within 2/3 days

Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s leading SME digital financing platform, announced last Wed, 26 Feb that it is collaborating with Singapore E-Business Pte Ltd (SGeBIZ) to provide quick financing solutions to local SME suppliers and their buyers. The platform offers a diverse range of loan products, which are now easily accessible by SME owners via SGeBIZ’s e-procurement management system, EzyProcure, Singapore’s first and leading B2B procure-to-pay platform.

Funding Societies tells DNA that it will not have access to SGeBIZ’s database. “As both organisations take customer privacy very seriously, we respect that SGeBIZ does not allow Funding Societies access to their database.”

According to a 2019 survey conducted by consultancy firm Bain & Company in collaboration with Temasek and Google, millions of Southeast Asia’s SMEs today still encounter large funding gaps. In filling the gap, the survey expects innovations in SME working capital financing, similar to what platforms like Funding Societies are doing, to grow by more than 20% annually through 2025, ultimately becoming the largest revenue contributor of the region’s transactions. 

Funding Societies views this partnership as another way to lower the barrier of access to working capital for small businesses. Small businesses on SGeBIZ will now be able to access funds from Funding Societies to improve and match their cash cycles, giving them an opportunity to grow their business.

Funding Societies, which claims to provide loans to SMEs in as quickly as 24 hours, declined to share the commercial terms. "We have a comprehensive partnership arrangement which includes a variety of commercial agreements," its spokesperson said.

SGeBIZ was launched in 2014 by two ex-Republic of Singapore Air Force aviators on a mission to simplify work processes for SMEs through automating data entry and digitising inventory, supply chain and credit rails. Their flagship product, EzyProcure, is now a PEPPOL (Pan European Public Procurement On-Line) compliant and IMDA-approved access point provider supporting the E-Invoicing Initiative implemented nationwide last year. 

SGeBIZ, a solutions firm with more than 1,000 clients under its belt in Singapore alone, recognises that SMEs face a multitude of complications in their supply chain with procurement and payments. Having helped replace outdated processes like manual ordering, goods receiving, inventory tracking, and reconciliation and documentation of invoices, it now aims to resolve a critical challenge that businesses sometimes encounter - cash flow. Often when buyers fail to pay in a timely manner, suppliers suffer a temporary but painful blow to their income. 

“Any buyer or supplier will look forward to extended credit terms or collecting payments within two to three days from delivery of goods and services because it helps mitigate challenges surrounding cash flow optimisation and payment collection. Now, our win-win solution is a reality and is made available for all businesses to enjoy,” enthused  Edmund Louis Nathan (pic, below right), Group CEO of SGeBIZ which has a regional presence in Malaysia and Taiwan as well.

“Unlike their larger counterparts, SMEs find their financial challenges much harder to overcome, which in turn impacts their ability to capture available opportunities for business growth. It is crucial that small enterprises are financed at maximum speed and with flexibility of the best repayment structure so that they have access to a steady cash flow,” comments Dheeraj Chowdhry (pic, top), CEO Singapore of Funding Societies.

Funding Societies has given out more than S$1.1 billion in financing regionally, spread across more than 1.4 million loans funded by individual and institutional investors starting with investment amount as low as S$20 per loan.