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Funding Societies secures third credit facility with HSBC to extend access to MSMEs in Southeast Asia

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Part of HSBC’s ASEAN Growth Fund, an accumulative commitment of over US$100 million to Funding Societies since its partnership established in 2022

SINGAPORE, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Funding Societies | Modalku (Funding Societies), the largest unified digital finance platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Southeast Asia today announced signing the third credit facility* with HSBC under its ASEAN Growth Fund. The overall transaction, an accumulative commitment of over US$100 million, also includes the two annual credit facilities extended to Funding Societies, reaffirms HSBC’s continued support for MSMEs through the platform since 2022.

This transaction, which is amongst HSBC’s largest asset-backed secured facilities extended to digital SME lenders in Southeast Asia, will further deepen and extend Funding Societies’ reach to providing credit access to underserved MSME segments in the region.

While the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has grown its middle-class and gained tremendous traction in terms of increasing access to formal banking services and digitalising its commercial environment, the region still has a US$2.5 trillion credit access gap, making up over half of the global shortfall in small business financing[1]. To put into perspective, up to 99.9% of enterprises are MSMEs contributing to 35% to 69% of each country’s gross domestic product (GDP)[2].

Co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies, Kelvin Teo, said, “The continued support from a global bank such as HSBC is a testament to its commitment to support the development of digital platform businesses such as ours and MSMEs as we ride through a two-decade high interest rates impacting the global economy. This enables us to further explore scalable debt financing for growth and profitability, and bolster financial inclusion for the underbanked and underserved SMEs in the region.”

As part of its ASEAN Growth Fund strategy, this transaction underlines a scalable solution to allow and enable digital lenders like Funding Societies to raise additional equity capital and debt financing through different channels. Furthermore, HSBC will act as the structuring bank, lender, account bank, FX counterparty, facility and security agent in providing a scalable and pan-regional financing solution to support Funding Societies’ business expansion in the region.

Harish Venkatesan, Head of Corporates and Business Banking, HSBC Singapore, said, “As an early-starter and a leading MSME digital financing player in ASEAN, we are pleased to provide our third credit facility for Funding Societies, cumulatively in excess of US$100 million. This will enable us to continue supporting its efforts to provide financing support to micro, small and medium enterprises which will contribute to the building blocks of societies in the ASEAN region. We look forward to continuing support for Funding Societies as they grow their business and for the underlying MSMEs in the region through the HSBC ASEAN Growth Fund.”

The US$1 billion HSBC ASEAN Growth Fund was launched in March 2024 to enable Singapore-based digital platform businesses supporting e-commerce in the region to achieve economies of scale across multiple international markets, grow their asset portfolios, and advance along the corporate lifecycle. Together with the New Economy and Venture Debt Fund, HSBC Singapore offers a comprehensive suite of financing solutions for new economy businesses across different stages of growth[3].

This announcement comes at the heels of Funding Societies’ most recent strategic investments from Maybank in September.

Since its inception in 2015, Funding Societies has disbursed over US$4 billion in business financing, positively impacting more than 100,000 businesses across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as processed an annualised US$1.4 billion in payments GTV (gross transaction value) since its entry into payments in late 2022.

About Funding Societies | Modalku

Funding Societies | Modalku is the largest unified SME digital finance platform in Southeast Asia. It is licensed in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, registered in Malaysia, and operates in Vietnam. The FinTech company provides US$1 billion annually of business financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In recent years, it has made strategic milestones including its acquisition of regional digital payments platform CardUp and co-investment into Bank Index in Indonesia.

Funding Societies | Modalku is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Maybank, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, CGC Digital (the digital arm of the Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad), SBVA (previously SoftBank Ventures Asia), Peak XV Partners (previously Sequoia Capital India), Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, BRI Ventures, VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, Endeavor, EBDI, SGInnovative, Qualgro, and Golden Gate Ventures among others.

It has received accolades through the years including: Brands for Good (2019, 2023), Global SME Excellence Award, Global SME Finance Awards by IFC (2021-2023) Global Startup Awards (2020), MAS FinTech Award (2016, 2021), Singapore’s Fastest-Growing Companies 2024 (a list of 100 companies compiled by The Straits Times and Statista), High-Growth Companies in Asia-Pacific 2024 (a list of 500 companies compiled by the Financial Times and Statista) .

For more information, please visit: www.fundingsocieties.com

About The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is the founding member of the HSBC Group. HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 60 countries and territories. With assets of US$2,975bn as of 30 June 2024, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.

 

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SOURCE Funding Societies

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Smallest.ai launches Lightning – World’s fastest text-to-speech model

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Lightning generates upto 10 seconds of audio in just 100msGenerates hyper-realistic audio in English and HindiDrastically reduces the cost for all voicebot builders

BENGALURU, India, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Smallest.ai, a leading developer of multi-modal AI foundation models headquartered in San Francisco, California, announces the launch of Lightning the world’s fastest real-time text to speech model that can generate up to 10 seconds of audio in just 100ms. This enables voicebot providers globally to build ultra-realistic bots with sub-second latency, whilst drastically simplifying the integration process.

What makes Lightning revolutionary is also the fact that it costs drastically lower than Western competitors with prices starting at 0.02 USD/min (1.6 Rs/min). This enables population-scale use cases for voicebots at sub 1 Rs/min cost.

Traditionally, real-time text-to-speech models require streaming, which opens up a websocket connection, increasing the computational load on servers and making it difficult and more expensive to scale voicebots. Lightning enables bot providers to scale faster while drastically cutting down on API costs by making it possible to get audio via a simple REST API in around 100ms.

Lightning currently supports multiple English and Hindi accents. Smallest.ai plans on adding other Indian, European, and Asian languages as well in the next couple of months.

Voicebot platforms with early access to Lightning cut their per minute cost by 8x along with a drastic improvement in voice quality.

Whilst Lightning is intended for real-time use-cases, it can also be used to create audiobooks, and voiceovers for reels on Instagram, YouTube, and many more social media platforms. For non-developers, Lightning is available on the Waves Speech platform where support for voice cloning, accent conversion, and other features are available in beta mode.

When asked about it’s mission, Sudarshan Kamath, Founder of Smallest.ai said, “Why are 1B humans not speaking to AI voices everyday despite incredible advancements in Voice AI? This is the problem we are trying to solve.”

About Smallest.ai:

Started by IIT graduates Sudarshan Kamath and Akshat Mandloi, Smallest.ai is backed by marquee investors like 3one4 CapitalBetter Capital and Upsparks Capital.

Smallest.ai’s platform is available on Waves and the team actively engages with their customers on discord which is one of the world’s largest speech AI communities.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2548149/Smallest_ai_launches_Lightning.jpg

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Digital Realty Expands Global Connectivity with Strategic Partnerships in Asia Pacific to Fuel AI Innovation and Future-ready Digital Infrastructure

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StarHub, KINX Inc. (Korea Internet Neutral eXchange), and ARTERIA Networks extend service reach to global audiences via ServiceFabric™, Digital Realty’s service orchestration platform

SINGAPORE, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, today announced the continued momentum in Asia Pacific of ServiceFabric™, its service orchestration platform that seamlessly interconnects workflow participants, applications, clouds and ecosystems on PlatformDIGITAL®, its global data center platform.

Over 30 Asia Pacific partners are now listed in Service Directory, a central marketplace that allows Digital Realty partners to highlight their offerings, extend their reach to global enterprises, and scale into new markets, reaching over 5,000 customers of Digital Realty. Globally, more than 220 services are now available on the Service Directory, including access to Digital Realty’s Private AI Exchange (AIPx) partner solutions, where we continue to add new partners to the platform. Additionally, Digital Realty’s secure and direct connections to nearly 250 global cloud on-ramps create a vibrant ecosystem for seamless interconnection and collaboration.

New Asia Pacific partners now available on Service Directory include StarHub, a leading telecommunications service provider in Singapore; KINX Inc. (Korea Internet Neutral eXchange) which operates the largest layer-2 based internet exchange in South Korea; and ARTERIA Networks, a leading enterprise-focused telecommunications carrier in Japan.

As enterprises in Asia Pacific look to deploy private AI applications which rely on low latency and the private exchange of data, an open interconnection and orchestration platform is critical. Through ServiceFabric™, customers are now able to easily find, access, and manage connectivity and digital solutions from service providers such as StarHub, KINX, and ARTERIA Networks. This open and collaborative environment empowers businesses to build and orchestrate their ideal solutions, scale confidently, and easily handle demanding workloads.

Through Service Directory’s ‘Click-to-Connect’ capability, Digital Realty customers can orchestrate and automate on-demand connections to the services they need, significantly streamlining workflows and removing manual configuration steps. This also enables customers to generate secure service keys, granting controlled access to resources and partners with customizable security parameters, as well as automate approval workflows and facilitate connections to Service Directory, paving the way for seamless interconnectivity.

Quotes:

Govind Choudhary, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Asia Pacific, Digital Realty said: “We are delighted with the continued momentum of our ServiceFabric™ platform in Asia Pacific. The open platform, with its versatile and well-connected ecosystem that continues to grow, provides our customers with a dynamic environment that empowers them to innovate more freely, adapt swiftly to global changes, and optimize their AI strategies. By providing choice and global connectivity, we help our customers accelerate their time-to-market and maximize their competitive edge.”

Tan Kit Yong, Head of Business Group, StarHub, said: “At StarHub, we understand that in the AI-driven era, low latency goes far beyond speed alone. It is about optimising data routing, network topology, and reducing the number of hops between nodes. By minimising latency, we ensure faster decision-making and near-instant responses which is essential for AI applications like machine learning, autonomous operations, and real-time analytics. This is especially vital for time-sensitive tasks, particularly those spanning hybrid environments that integrate both public and private networks. Through our advanced low-latency connectivity at Digital Realty locations in Singapore, powered by ServiceFabric™, we’re enabling seamless peering connections and highly efficient data transit. This allows Digital Realty customers to leverage StarHub’s robust infrastructure for their most demanding AI and data-driven workloads.”

KwanWoo Kim, Director, Global Business Strategy, Korea Internet Neutral eXchange, said: “At KINX, we are focused on interconnecting Korean and global internet service providers, cloud providers and enterprises to achieve our goal as a one-stop solution provider. ServiceFabric™ Service Directory provides a unique platform that empowers Digital Realty customers to seamlessly connect with KINX and our CloudHub® service—Korea’s largest cloud connectivity platform. This partnership will bridge the gap between the Korean and global markets, enabling ICN10 enterprise customers to establish private, secure connections to major cloud providers in Korea, as well as KINX customers to connect with global cloud regions. We’re excited about this opportunity to enhance connectivity and drive innovation.”

Tatsuya Ohkubo, Vice President, Corporate Business Div., ARTERIA Networks, said: “ServiceFabric™ Service Directory enables businesses to access and use cloud and connectivity services in an open and dynamic way. We are excited that ARTERIA Networks’ services will now not only serve Digital Realty customers in Japan but will have global reach, including robust connectivity between Japan and Canada via Topaz, the world’s first submarine cable to directly connect Japan and Canada.”

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

For Additional Information

Media Contacts
Sin Huay Ho
Digital Realty
+65 8125 8380
shho@digitalrealty.com 

Investor Relations
Jordan Sadler / Jim Huseby
Digital Realty
+1 415 275 5344
InvestorRelations@digitalrealty.com 

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including the company’s strategy, the Asia-Pacific market, ServiceFabric™ and Service Directory, the role of artificial intelligence and customer demand. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE Digital Realty

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New survey by Market Logic Software exposes costly underutilization of corporate knowledge and market insights: B2C enterprises losing out on millions in value

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BERLIN, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A new global survey of marketing and product management leaders, Hyperscaling Insights Impact reveals that a staggering 40% of key decisions are taken without reference to consumer insights. This oversight, driven by cumbersome information access, is costing businesses millions in lost value annually.

Published today by Market Logic Software, the survey highlights how reversing this trend could deliver top line impact. An overwhelming 90% of marketing leaders surveyed believe easier access to market insights would boost advertising effectiveness while 89% of product leaders surveyed say it would enhance product launch success rates.

Appetite for utilizing market insights and consumer data is strong.  Business leaders across industries want to apply this data to at least 80% of decisions – a 20% increase over current usage. Yet, fragmented data systems and formats remain a major roadblock. Nearly half (49%) of executives report it takes too long to find and access data. To overcome this, respondents identified implementing a centralized insights platform as a top priority.

The negative impact of not using centralized knowledge management systems is visible in the survey data. Almost 59% of respondents who are not regular users of a knowledge management system reported problems finding and accessing data compared with 36% of those who have a system in place today.

“Our survey shows that marketing and product leaders see vast potential for revenue growth and margin improvements by tackling technological barriers to insights access,” said Dirk Wolf, CEO of Market Logic Software. “In the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry alone we estimate a $25 billion opportunity. Insights executives and CIOs now have a critical role in enabling their organizations to unlock this advantage rapidly by building a strategic end-to-end insights process utilizing internal and external data sources and consumer insights holistically.”  

The survey was conducted by Insight Platforms, a leading independent voice in the insights industry. Mike Stevens, CEO of Insight Platforms, commented on the results, “Advances in technology, especially AI, make it easier than ever to generate and share market insights at scale. Yet, the survey data shows many businesses are missing out. It’s time for IT and insights teams to collaborate and fully leverage their market intelligence and research investments.”

Download a full copy of the “Hyperscaling Insights Impact’ report here.

About Market Logic Software 

Market Logic is a market-leading SaaS provider of insights management solutions. Our award-winning AI-enabled insights management platform DeepSights™ allows insights teams to equip business decision-makers with trusted insights at scale and speed. Since 2006, we’ve helped hundreds of consumer-focused brands across the globe to transform into insights-driven businesses. Market leaders such as Unilever, Vodafone, and Tesco are driving innovation and making smarter market moves with the support of Market Logic.  

For more information, please visit marketlogicsoftware.com

Media contact:
Daniela Zuin,
Chief Marketing and Growth Officer, Market Logic
Email: Daniela.zuin@marketlogicsoftware.com
Tel: +44 7799113040

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/new-survey-by-market-logic-software-exposes-costly-underutilization-of-corporate-knowledge-and-market-insights-b2c-enterprises-losing-out-on-millions-in-value-302295601.html

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