SEEDIN Technology, a mobile, easy-to-use app, web-based investment platform that matches Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with potential investors from around the world, has taken the finance world by storm, making financing and investment accessible for everybody.
As the only Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-licensed person-to-business (P2B) SME crowdlending platform in the country, its business model has been widely successful, making SeedIn Technology one of the biggest P2B crowdfunding platforms in the region, having put over US$200 million into SMEs across four countries in Southeast Asia such as Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore and Cambodia.
SeedIn was brought to the Philippines by Edison Tsai, Anson Uy and Dexter Tiu, successful entrepreneurs in the Information Technology, Finance and Energy space. They were looking for the next big thing and saw the potential in SeedIn’s financially inclusive model, along with the benefits it would give to both SMEs and investors in the country. They tirelessly worked to bring the brand into the country, eventually launching operations in 2017 and forged strategic partnerships with banks like Union Bank, fintech organizations such as FintechAlliance.ph and Fintech Philippines, and other government institutions and payment gateways in the country.
Planting the Seed for SMEs
SeedIn Technology has democratized the world of finance through crowdfunding and by tapping into SMEs, a sector that is often overlooked by banks due to their heavy risk portfolios or low credit scores, where the company’s crowdfunding model has found a decentralized solution to financing. While banks are financially centralized, SeedIn pulls together the resources of tens of thousands of investors who use their app, wherein Tsai calls SeedIn “The People’s Bank.” As a result, many struggling businesses are now able to gain access to credit and continue to thrive and be part of the comeback economy.
The process of becoming a borrower on SeedIn’s website is easy. SMEs simply need to register as “Issuer” and make a “Loan Request” once their profile has been approved. SeedIn then contacts the Issuer and performs the necessary due diligence by analyzing the company’s financials and business plans to come up with a Credit Score. Once the project is approved, it will go live and be displayed in the marketplace on the app, where it becomes available to SeedIn investors around the world. The investors then select the project and their desired investment amount. With SeedIn’s platform, the possibilities for SMEs and investors are endless.
Financial Inclusion
SeedIn makes financing more inclusive by allowing anybody to be an investor. With a minimum per investment amount of only P1,000 and an average of 10 percent per annum returns, investments now become accessible to anyone 18 years old and above with a Philippine bank account or e-wallet. The process is easy: download the app on Google or Apple store, upload an ID and fill up required fields, and the eKYC process is complete within 10-15 minutes. Now the fun begins, and one is introduced to the fascinating and prosperous world of finance. SeedIn provides investors with the profile of the SMEs they are investing in, as well as pertinent loan information such as interest rate, tenure and repayment method.
Tsai believes that what they are doing will have a positive social and economic impact in the country. “It is really about connecting people and allowing them to invest in an easy, convenient way,” he says. “We are not lending [to the big conglomerates] because they do not need us. We are thinking about the other 99 percent. That is our mission—our social purpose.” The company encourages “social lending” and “impact investment” by providing local businesses with accessible decentralized capital to help them grow and prosper.
Serve the Deserving
Having operated in the Philippines for five years now, SeedIn Technology has continued to serve Filipino SMEs, retail and institutional investors. Today, they have served hundreds of businesses and over 80,000 investors across 80 countries around the world. As one of the largest P2B SME crowdfunding platforms in Asia, SeedIn plans to further educate SMEs and investors on alternative financing and investment by expanding to other regions in the near future.
For more information, visit Seedin’s social media or visit https://www.seedinph.tech.