Funding Societies Announces Co-Investment in Bank Index

Co-Investment Measure is Funding Societies’ Next Move to Compete in the Neobank Industry

Singapore, 26 April 2022 – Funding Societies (also known as Modalku in Indonesia), Southeast Asia’s leading SME (small and medium enterprises) digital financing platform, officially announced its investment into Bank Index (PT. Bank Index Selindo), an Indonesian national Bank, alongside Carro, a Southeast Asian automotive marketplace platform. The move serves as a significant milestone in Funding Societies’ entry into the neobanking space and its drive to offer more high-impact digital financial services to underserved businesses in the region.

With a focus on SME Banking, Bank Index is a privately-owned national Bank with a strong nation-wide footprint of 53 offices networks in major commercial areas across Jabodetabek, Java, Sumatra, Bali and Batam. Bank Index also conducts business across a range of commercial supply chains while offering mobile and internet banking services to its clients.

Co-Founder & Group CEO of Funding Societies | Modalku, Kelvin Teo, said, “Our investment and partnership with Bank Index will support Funding Societies’ business strategy into neobanking. Bank Index shares the vision of empowering and developing SMEs. Since 2015, Funding Societies has been actively partnering with banks across the region, and our partnership with Bank Index will take FinTech-bank collaboration to the next level. Our complementary capabilities will enable us to serve SMEs better across banking, payments, lending and digital services to uplift Southeast Asia’s economies through small businesses.”

Funding Societies’ investment into Bank Index is one of its key steps to further progress the FinTech industry. The Indonesia FinTech Association (AFTECH) Annual Members Survey held in 2021 revealed that the neobank cluster has the potential to rapidly grow in the future, especially for the unbanked population, with an estimated growth of 51% in Indonesia. This is further backed by Ernst & Young’s 2021 NextWave Global Consumer Banking Survey, which highlighted the highest rates of neobanking activities’ adoption amongst consumers in two regional markets, one of which being the Asia Pacific market.

Jeremy Ong, CEO of CARRO Indonesia, said, “Bank Index's plan for a sophisticated fintech industry, with a human touch at its core, aligns with our own vision of building capabilities and infrastructure that will serve customers across the automotive ecosystem — whether it's buying, selling, SME financing, insurance or more. As such, co-investment was the natural choice. We strongly believe in the value of this partnership and are excited to be a part of this journey moving forward.”

Gimin Sumalim, President Director of Bank Index, added, “We are delighted to welcome Funding Societies and Carro as shareholders of Bank Index. Together, we will partner to forge strategic initiatives based on our shared vision and mission, primarily to greatly expand our services to our target market. This collective step is also a reference point to continue pursuing comprehensive digital transformation.”

Funding Societies provides digital financing services, where developing MSMEs can apply for up to SGD 2 million in working capital financing funded by institutional and retail investors through a digital market. In addition to Singapore and Indonesia, Funding Societies also operates in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The company has facilitated more than SGD 3 billion in working capital through more than 5 million MSME loan transactions.

About Funding Societies

Funding Societies | Modalku is the largest SME digital financing platform in Southeast Asia, expanding into a leading SME neobank. It is licensed and registered in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and operating in Vietnam. It is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Sequoia Capital India, Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, Samsung Ventures, BRI Ventures, Endeavor, SGInnovate, Qualgro, and Golden Gate Ventures amongst others. The FinTech company provides business financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), annualising US$1 billion disbursement in 2021. It was given the MAS FinTech Award in 2016, the Global SME Excellence Award at the United Nations’ ITU Telecom World in 2017, KPMG Fintech100 in 2018, Brands for Good in 2019, and ASEAN Startup of the Year by Global Startup Awards in 2020. In 2021, it was honorably mentioned as Responsible Digital Innovator of the Year by World Bank IFC SME Finance Forum and won the MAS Fintech award for the second time.

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About Carro

Founded in 2015, CARRO is Southeast Asia’s largest auto marketplace that offers a full-stack service across the car ownership lifecycle - entirely online. By offering a trustworthy and transparent experience, Carro transforms the traditional way of buying and selling cars through proprietary pricing algorithms and AI-enabled capabilities. CARRO last raised over US$500M from Softbank Vision Fund and several sovereign funds. CARRO has over 2000 employees across Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore.

For more information, please visit: www.carro.id

About Bank Index 

Bank Index is a Nasional Private Commercial Bank which was established in Jakarta on July 30, 1992, and officially operating in August, 1993. The main focus of Bank Index's business is on the commercial sector, prioritising expanding market share in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment, as well as consumer banking.

Bank Index has achieved various accomplishment, including the latest, Titanium Trophy as a "Very Good" financial performance bank for the 15 consecutive years (2006 - 2020) by Infobank, "TOP DIGITAL Implementation 2021 #Level Stars 4" by IT Works, and " GOLD Award – Excellent, The Best IT for Bank Company, Category: Private Bank" 2022 by Economic Review.

As of today, Bank Index has 52 office networks that are connected online and spread throughout Indonesia. In 2017 Bank Index launched Internet Banking Mobile Banking (IBMB) – INDEXQU, andin 2019, Internet Banking Business – INDEXQU Business.

Bank Index has been continuously committed to become the partner of business growth for SME clients.

For more information, please visit: www.bankindex.co.id

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