Funding Societies (FS) – Southeast Asia’s largest small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) digital financing platform – has raised US$27 million in debt led by Asia-focused private credit financier AlteriQ Global, multi-family office Aument Capital Partners, and sustainability-focused fund Orange Bloom.

The funds will be channelled via its range of tailored financing solutions to support the underserved SME segments in the five markets in which it operates, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Despite reports of increased access to credit for consumers, FS points out, 39 million SMEs in Asia still face challenges to financing; and this financing gap, according to the United Nations Capital Development Fund, amounts to US$300 billion.

In its mission and commitment to supporting these businesses, FS states that it has begun offering solutions beyond lending, such as payments and collections, with the ambition of solving cash flow management challenges faced by SMEs. To date, FS has achieved over US$3.2 billion in business financing, processing more than 5 million transactions in serving about 100,000 SMEs across the region.

The addition of Orange Bloom as an investor in the FS platform will also add climate-change and advanced environmental sustainability capabilities and expertise to SMEs that are working to transition to a low-carbon economy. Orange Bloom has recently set-up the Orange Bloom Sustainability Fund to provide financial support to individuals and SMEs that are working on projects that counter climate change.

Kelvin Teo, FS co-founder and group CEO, says: “We received this debt funding from a diverse group of institutional investors, all of whom believe in our mission and growth story of serving Southeast Asia’s SMEs; and we will continue to deepen our financing propositions across our five markets for more underserved SMEs.”