Singapore-based ‘bank-as-a-service’ platform MatchMove, which has offices in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, has closed an agreement with licensed P2P lender MoolahSense to acquire a strategic stake with immediate effect. 

Shailesh Naik, Founder and Group CEO, MatchMove, said, 

“With this partnership, we will be able to leverage on MoolahSense’s capability in credit origination and scoring to serve our clients better. Furthermore, there is a natural strategic convergence between our two digital platforms to go-to-market together as a combined offering.”

With this, Shailesh will join the board of directors of Moolahsense, a data-driven peer-to-peer lending platform focused on SME lending.

Founded in 2013, MoolahSense claims to be the first digital lending platform to receive the full Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). 

This acquisition will enable MatchMove to further strengthen its Spend.Send.Lend™ capability and provide access to financing to SMEs within its ecosystem, the company said in a statement. Consequently, MoolahSense will be able to leverage MatchMove’s integrated regional partner network to tap new segments and extend its capability to fund creditworthy SMEs across Asia, it added. 

Lawrence Yong, CEO of MoolahSense, said,

“We are excited to partner with MatchMove to launch a risk-mitigated "on-tap" credit solution for curated digital ecosystems that fulfills the working capital needs of SMEs. We shall be tuning our "Lending-in-a-Box" into MatchMove’s vision of "Banking-in-any-App" to realize the dreams of many SMEs and reward the decisions of lenders.” 

Moving forward, MatchMove will be able to originate potential issuers and lenders from its client ecosystem, while MoolahSense will in turn grow its loan portfolio on the back of accessing new segments and structuring new product capabilities.

Also, the strategic combination of both the companies will directly address the fundamental market demand and facilitate SME development using digital methods of credit evaluation and capital distribution.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)