Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah, and CGC Digital Sdn Bhd will be investing in Funding Societies Sdn Bhd, Southeast Asia’s largest unified small and medium enterprise (MSME) digital finance platform, according to a report from Bernama.
In a joint statement today, the companies stated that following the investment, Funding Societies are now looking to expand their coverage in Malaysia to areas beyond what they’re already covering right now; Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, and Selangor.
They are also targeting to serve more than 25,000 MSMEs in Malaysia by 2025.
Since its inception in May 2023, Funding Societies have seen a meteoric rise, which is encapsulated by the fact that they have disbursed over US$3.5 billion (RM16 billion) in business financing through five million transactions across the five markets that they operate in, namely Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.
According to Khazanah’s Managing Director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir , even though MSME is the backbone of the nation’s economy, while also contributing to almost half of all employment in Malaysia, they are critically deprived of the help that they need.
Which is why this investment is so important for Khazanah, as they believe that it is aligned to their mission of building the nation and socioeconomic growth.
Meanwhile, CGC Digital chief executive officer (CEO) Yushida Husin stated that the company is looking to contribute to the partnership by trying new and innovative digital guarantee products that will help MSMEs in the running of their business.
Funding Societies co-founder and group CEO Kelvin Teo also echoed Amirul’s sentiments, stating that although MSMEs make up 97 percent of business establishments in Malaysia, a lot of them are still struggling with obtaining credit.
