Falling rates fuel Funding Societies’ lending comeback in 2025

SME digital financing platform Funding Societies had a tough 2023 as its lending business lost steam.

Dampened demand for loans continued into 2024. On-balance sheet loans disbursed to its SME customers dipped slightly by 1.6% to US$170.5 million as the company balanced credit risk with growth that year, its audited financial statement shows.

A Funding Societies spokesperson tells Tech in Asia that total on- and off-balance sheet loans landed at US$793 million in 2024 – down 2.5% year on year.

Off-balance sheet loans refer to those sourced from crowdfunding and third-party channels, and don’t appear on the company’s balance sheet.

Still, Funding Societies grew its 2024 revenue by 11.5% to US$54.3 million. This was driven largely by its payments business, which it began scaling in 2023.

The firm’s loss before taxes also narrowed by 21.4% to US$38.6 million last year.

Clearer skies have been on the horizon in the lending space starting late 2024, when US interest rates began to fall from a high in September of that year.

“Lending is a fairly cyclical business,” the spokesperson says.

With US interest rates falling, the company is seeing a “pretty strong” rebound in lending in 2025 so far.

Since digital lending platforms like Funding Societies borrow capital to lend out to SMEs, higher interest rates can increase the cost of funding.

Photo credit: Funding Societies

As of July 2025, Funding Societies’ year-to-date lending revenue had surpassed its total lending revenue for all of 2024, its spokesperson shares.

Payments as an anchor

Launched in 2015, Funding Societies connects SMEs seeking funding to individual and institutional investors. It operates across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

From its inception to the third quarter of 2025, the platform disbursed over S$6.41 billion (US$4.98 billion) in funding.

Getting over the lending slump

Trimming expenses

A strong war chest