Funding Societies

Funding Societies Pte Ltd
Private Limited
Industry Personal Finance, Investment
Founded 2015
Founder Kelvin Teo, Reynold Wijaya
Headquarters Singapore
Area served
 Singapore, Indonesia
Products Peer-to-peer lending
Number of employees
 50+
Website fundingsocieties.com

Funding Societies is a South-East-Asia based peer-to-peer lending company, headquartered in Singapore. It was the first peer-to-peer lender in Singapore to engage an escrow agency to independently and safely manage investors’ funds.<ref>http://www.cio-asia.com/resource/industries/funding-societies-entrusts-crowdfunding-funds-with-mas-registered-trustee</ref>

History

Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya founded Funding Societies in 2015 while studying for their MBA at Harvard.<ref>http://sbr.com.sg/financial-services/exclusive/p2p-lending-platform-was-conceived-in-boston-born-in-singapore</ref> Funding Societies operates an online platform that enables Small and Medium Business to seek funding for their growth from a pool of investors, through crowdfunding. The standard loan period ranges from 3 months to 2 years and borrowers can loan up to SGD$500,000. In the first month of launching, they have received a total of SGD$3 million loan applications which about SGD$250,000 was disbursed.<ref>http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/peer-to-peer-lending/2031982.html</ref>

Investors can search and browse the loan listings on Funding Societies website and select loans that they want to invest into based on the profile of the borrower, amount of loan, loan grade and return on investment they can expect to earn. The loan is graded based on Funding Societies’ proprietary credit assessment model. Investors make money from interest and Funding Societies makes money by charging borrowers an origination fee and investors a service fee.

In January 2016, Funding Societies launched Modalku, which means "My Capital" in Bahasa to reach out to SMEs in the Indonesian Market. <ref>http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/business/homegrown-start-modalku-aims-help-smes-crowdfunded-loans</ref> The company claims that SGD$7.8 million in loans had been originated through its Singapore platform up to 30 June 2016. <ref>https://fundingsocieties.com/statistics.aspx</ref>

Business Model

Funding Societies provides borrowers a fully online application process by supplying details about themselves and the loans that they would like to request together with the required financial documents. The loans are unsecured and backed by personal guarantee of the owners of the business.

Funding Societies through their proprietary-scoring model, make credit decisions on the applications. Approved applications will be assigned a credit score based on their scoring model, which will determine the payable interest rate. The Loans can be repaid at anytime. Only Singapore or Indonesian registered businesses can apply for a loan on their respective platforms. Funding Societies for Singapore and Modalku for Indonesia.

Anyone can register as an investor to search and browse loan listings on website to select loans they want to invest into based on the profile of the borrower as provided through the factsheet. Investors can decide how much to fund each borrower, with the minimum investment at $100 per loan. Investors make money from interest and rates vary from 7%p.a to 14%p.a. Funding Societies makes money by charging borrowers an origination fee and investors a service fee.<ref>http://www.cio-asia.com/tech/careers/funding-societies-to-provide-alternative-financing-to-smes-in-sea/</ref>

Recognition

Funding Societies won the Tech in Asia road to Tokyo Tour (Singapore) Best Start-up award and represented Singapore in Tokyo in August 2015.<ref>https://www.techinasia.com/stops-tech-asia-tour-singapore-kuala-lumpur-tokyo-startups-ready</ref> It has also been selected as the inaugural batch of participants to enrol in one of the best FinTech Accelerator in Asia, The SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator which was sponsored by heavy weights such as Standard Chartered Bank, Baidu and TusPark Global Network.<ref>http://www.mis-asia.com/tech/careers/hong-kongs-supercharger-to-help-fintech-startups-grow/</ref> In June 2016, Funding Societies was also named the Asia's top 7 Peer-To-Peer Lending Platform by FinTech News. <ref>http://fintechnews.sg/3518/crowdfunding/asias-top-7-peer-peer-lending-platforms</ref>

Partnership

Funding Societies secured a Partnership with DBS Bank in April 2016, one of the biggest banks in Asia to cross-refer borrowers. <ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/harvard-student-s-chance-pitch-to-ceo-hits-home-in-fintech-race</ref>

See also

Comparison of crowdfunding services

References

    External links

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