Culum Capital, a Singapore-based receivables and supply chain financing provider, has launched a new investor platform, which is aimed at accredited and institutional investors around the globe, and provides invoice financing to SMEs as an alternative to traditional financing sources.
The platform’s sophisticated user interface brings ease and convenience for investors, with a double layer of security authentication. The platform uses its proprietary credit scoring and on-going risk measurement to identify optimum investment opportunities and provide transparency. The transactions carry a short tenor of maximum 120 days, with the average transaction at 70 days. Annualised gross returns are between 10 and 25 per cent, with a strong SME diversification.
Ginnie Chin (pictured), co-founder & CEO Culum Capital, says: “Seventy five per cent of our current investor group are corporate entities who require a highly liquid product to bolster portfolio diversification. We are delighted to bring to the market a strong alternative for investors, with 100 percent of all deals fully subscribed within 24 hours.”
Research cited by UOB in their recent ASEAN FinTech report (United Overseas Bank, 2017), talks of the “huge potential” for alternative funding in ASEAN for the MSME segment. Currently, less than 0.1 per cent of all loans in the region come via alternative funding. In the same report, Allied Market Research expects the global peer-to-peer lending market to reach USD460.3 billion by 2022. In ASEAN, MSME generate 41 per cent of GDP. According to SingStat, there were 216,000 SMEs in Singapore at the close of 2016, representing 99% of all businesses. They contribute 47 per cent of the economy’s nominal value added.
