Acudeen links up with Myanmar financial advisory group for SMEs

Acudeen Technologies, a startup from the Philippines, has signed a partnership with Anthem Asia, an independent investment and advisory group building sustainable businesses in Myanmar.

Acudeen seeks to help to bridge the gap between SMEs and financing entities through its platform.

The collaboration with Anthem Asia is in lieu of seeing a massive credit gap for SMEs due to the lack of accessible financing options brought about by insufficient credit data.

According to a company statement, formal loans in Myanmar are mostly collateral based and the availability of valuable assets like real estate are scarce.

Acudeen said 99 percent of companies in Myanmar are SMEs, therefore hindering them from gaining access to proper financing channels.

Anthem Asia is a private equity firm specializing in investments in SMEs and also funds expansion of existing operations or a joint venture, an acquisition, or a takeover.

It primarily invests in the fields of consumer goods and services, business services, tourism and leisure, food & beverage, manufacturing, distribution, logistics and agribusiness.

Acudeen, meanwhile, enables business owners to liquidate receivables for goods sold and services rendered ahead of their maturity date to financial partners or to accredited individuals.

To date, they have facilitated over $6 million worth of invoice transactions since first arriving at the scene in 2016.

“I believe we have gotten really a great partner in Anthem Asia to spread Acudeen’s advocacy of financial inclusion through SME receivables financing. Like Acudeen, they are passionate about the immense potential of the reciveables financing business in an emerging market like Myanmar,” said JJ Atencio, chairman of Acudeen Technologies.

The partnership comes as Acudeen seeks to extend its services to other markets. From just three employees, the company now has more than 50 in just under two years and has already expanded to Singapore.