Funding Societies, the largest digital financing platform in Southeast Asia, and Razer Fintech, the fintech arm of Razer and a leading offline-to-online (O2O) digital payment network, have jointly announced their partnership to offer short-term business financing to merchants under Razer Merchant Services (RMS).
More than 20,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Malaysia first and subsequently across the region will be connected to Funding Societies’ financing solutions via Razer Merchant Services (RMS), Razer Fintech’s B2B (business-to-business) platform. With Malaysian retailers, F&B vendors, and online sellers registered under the RMS platform to be among the first beneficiaries, this partnership is a reflection of both platforms’ mutual commitment to empower Southeast Asia’s enterprises particularly in their recovery post COVID-19. An Ernst & Young survey published in June detailed the impact of the pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) on Malaysian businesses. It found that nearly half of the 670 surveyed SMEs urged the need for loan reliefs to cope with operations costs, while 84% of them highlighted difficulty in their online communication and connectivity with customers and suppliers. The survey also made clear that financial relief and technology solutions are crucial areas of intervention to help companies survive, both of which are gaps that the two FinTech firms are well-positioned to fill.
The two leading digital players within the financial services industry have acknowledged the value of combining their expertise to provide RMS merchants across the region with business financing via a single platform.
Kelvin Teo, Co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies, said, “We’re excited to partner with Razer Fintech in allowing greater financial access to their merchants in Southeast Asia. As applicants of different digital bank licenses in Singapore, we share the conviction for digital banking and see synergies working together, for the arduous but meaningful mission of financially enabling SMEs.”
Eligible merchants will have access to quick and tailor-made short-term financing to help them meet common business operations needs such as cyclical cash flow gaps, urgent project expenses, unforeseen one-off expenses, and to overcome seasonal revenue fluctuations. The benefits include:
● Waiver of retention sum
● Fast disbursement with approval as fast as within 3 to 5 working days
● Flexible tenure between 6 to 18 months
● No collateral requirement
● Minimal documentation requirement
“Having worked very closely with our merchants, via our RMS network, we understand the challenges MSMEs face, especially so during these pandemic times. We found a great partner in Funding Societies with their capabilities of allowing financial access to small businesses in the region,” said Lee Li Meng, Chief Executive Officer at Razer Fintech. “With the combined ambition to supporting the needs of the underserved MSMEs, we look forward to growing together with Funding Societies in our bid for our respective digital banking licenses.”
This collaboration is expected to propel economic growth for MSMEs, the most underserved, yet reportedly the hardest hit by the pandemic - and through it, short-term business financing will first be extended to merchants in Malaysia before it gets potentially rolled out in other markets in the region.