Silk Road: Southeast Asia’s first partnerdriven digital supply chain financing system

KUALA LUMPUR: Funding Societies, the first and largest peer-topeer (P2P) financing platform in Southeast Asia, has become the first P2P financing platform in the region to launch a partner-driven digital financing solution, Silk Road.

Launched in May 2020, Silk Road enables customised and seamless information sharing via a digital portal, thereby creating a frictionless and expedient experience for users.

This allows greater convenience and lowers the cost in managing the financing process through a single dashboard. Silk Road is currently being utilised by car dealers to obtain financing through Funding Societies’ platform but can also be extended to multiple other use cases or partners.

In a press statement, Funding Societies Malaysia co-founder and chief executive officer Wong Kah Meng said, “Despite a slowdown in the overall automotive sector amid the COVID-19 outbreak and the country’s restrictions on business activities in the first half of 2020, the used car segment, on the contrary, has seen impressive growth.

“Acknowledging this trend, through Silk Road, we aim to further uplift the local used car industry by providing a fast, simple and seamless platform and financing solution for dealers to expand their business, leveraging on the current growth wave.”

He added, “By integrating Silk Road with our dealer financing offering, we are able to enhance the experience for SMEs and our partners through the aspects of transparency, accountability and speed, as compared to more traditional methods involving physical documentation or informal methods such as e-mail and messaging applications like WhatsApp.

Going forward, dealers only need to upload their invoices online before receiving their approval within 24 hours.”