Funding Societies Adds Financing To SGeBIZ Procurement Platform

Singaporean peer-to-peer (P2P) platform Funding Societies will partner with Singapore eBusiness (SGeBIZ) for a new way to provide financing solutions to customers, reports said.

SGeBIZ offers an array of loan products for small business (SMB) users, including B2B procure-to-pay platform EzyProcure, the first of its kind in the country.

Funding Societies research found that many Singaporean residents still experience gaps in terms of funding. The survey predicted innovations in SMB working capital financing to grow more than 20 percent by 2025. Since Funding Societies is also looking at growth, the partnership seemed logical.

Through the partnership, Funding Societies seeks to lower the barrier of access to working capital for small businesses. SMBs can now use funds from Funding Societies on the SGeBIZ platform to improve and match their cash cycles, which will let them grow their businesses.

“SGeBIZ was started in 2014 by two ex-Republic of Singapore Air Force aviators,” according to reports. They sought to simplify the SMB process by way of “automating data entry and digitizing inventory, supply chain and credit rails. [The] flagship product, EzyProcure, is now a [Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line (PEPPOL)]-compliant and IMDA-approved access point provider, supporting the eInvoicing Initiative implemented nationwide last year.”

SGeBIZ’s solution has over 1,000 clients within Singapore, and has “helped replace outdated processes like manual ordering, goods receiving, inventory tracking, and [the] reconciliation and documentation of invoices.” Now, the company wants to tackle cash flow, which it considers another crucial problem facing businesses today.

CEO Edmund Louis Nathan of SGeBIZ said that buyers and suppliers could look forward to extending credit terms and collecting payments within a matter of days under the company’s initiatives.

Dheeraj Chowdhry, CEO of Singapore for Funding Societies, said that people wanted the option to finance SMBs quickly and have a steady cash flow.

Funding Societies has worked with more than $1.1 billion in financing within the region, with more than 1.4 billion loans financed by individual and institutional investors, starting at prices as low as $20 per loan.