Razer Fintech and Funding Societies today jointly announced a partnership to offer short-term business financing to merchants under Razer Merchant Services (RMS).

According to their statement more than 20,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises in Malaysia first and subsequently across the region will be connected to Funding Societies’ financing solutions via Razer Merchant Services. They expect retailers, F&B vendors, and online sellers registered under the RMS platform to be among the first beneficiaries.

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.

As part of the partnership, Funding Societies will also be introducing a new product, the micro-credit line, to eligible RMS merchants. Unlike its other business term financing products, the line facility enables SMEs to draw a short credit period (between 45 days to 90 days) anytime. The offering is set to be launched within the next coming weeks.

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 the difficulty in their online communication and connectivity with customers and suppliers.

This alternative form of financing could come in handy for MSMEs in this current challenging climate.

Wong Kah Meng, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Funding Societies Malaysia, said,

“Our partnership with Razer Fintech will allow greater access to financing for the RMS merchants in obtaining collateral-free, short-term financing solution with the added benefits of quick and seamless online application experience – thus providing shorter turnaround time and minimum documentation requirement. As the region’s largest P2P financing platform, Funding Societies has been at the forefront of driving financing inclusion amongst the MSMEs across the region, and this partnership with Razer Fintech will greatly help to fulfil our mission to reach out to many more underserved and unserved MSMEs.”

“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.”