Kelvin Teo was a student at Harvard Business School when he and Reynold Wijaya founded Funding Societies in February 2015. Small businesses in Southeast Asia struggled to get bank loans. The platform connected them with people who wanted a return on their money.
The first month showed the gap between demand and supply. The platform received about S$3 million in loan applications and disbursed about S$250,000. Picking borrowers carefully became the core of the business.
In January 2016 the company launched in Indonesia as Modalku. DBS Bank partnered with it in April 2016, and in November 2016 it became one of six licensed SME lending platforms in Malaysia. A S$10 million Series A followed in August 2016.
SoftBank Ventures Korea led a $25 million Series B in April 2018. Funding Societies partnered with Razer Fintech on merchant financing in 2020 and launched in Thailand in February 2021. Maybank became an investor in 2024.