WELLINGTON, New Zealand, June 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the 2024 Ningbo City Image Exhibition was held at the Miramar Creative Centre in Wellington, New Zealand. The city image film "Ningbo" as well as six short films created by Chinese directors, including "Lost In Count", "What You Can't See", "Where do Ants sleep at Night", "Graveyard of Horses", were shown on site. Topics such as intimacy, women, man and nature, and artificial intelligence were explored, showcasing China's beautiful grasslands, the current state of contemporary life and traditional culture.
The screening was jointly curated by 30°Ningbo Short Film Festival and the New Zealand Showtime Short Film Festival, and it was also the first time that Ningbo's selected short films appeared in New Zealand! The venue attracted local film professionals, Victoria University film students, and New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) curators. The six short films screened left a deep impression on the audience with unique style and profound themes. The short film "Lost In Count" gave people a strong sense of impact, letting the audience feel the spirit of never give up on sports and competition. The short film "What You Can't See" is thought-provoking with its strong sense of picture and storyline. The short film "Graveyard of Horses" is a deep meditation on the subtle connection between women, animals and nature. At the end of the screening, the creators shared their behind-the-scenes stories and creative ideas with the audience in the form of a VCR. In the post-screening session, Lulu, a filmmaker from China, and Gina, Chairperson of Showme Short Film Festival, discussed "How to Find Inspiration and Transform it into Visual Storytelling".
Gina said she was glad to see that many New Zealanders love Chinese films, and hoped that this event could help people better understand China and bring the two peoples closer together. She also hopes to welcome more friends to go to China to have a walk, have a look and experience the beauty of China for themselves.
As the New Zealand stop of the overseas tour of the 2024 Ningbo City Image Exhibition, this event uses film and television as a bridge to dig deeper into the excellent traditional Chinese culture. The search for transnational emotional common factors and the realisation of Chinese stories to the world's culture is a path that contemporary filmmakers are constantly exploring.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Ningbo short film debuts in New Zealand, 2024 Ningbo City Image Exhibition Successfully Closed
Part of HSBC's ASEAN Growth Fund, an accumulative commitment of over US$100 million to Funding Societies since its partnership established in 2022
SINGAPORE, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Funding Societies | Modalku (Funding Societies), the largest unified digital finance platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Southeast Asia today announced signing the third credit facility* with HSBC under its ASEAN Growth Fund. The overall transaction, an accumulative commitment of over US$100 million, also includes the two annual credit facilities extended to Funding Societies, reaffirms HSBC's continued support for MSMEs through the platform since 2022.
This transaction, which is amongst HSBC's largest asset-backed secured facilities extended to digital SME lenders in Southeast Asia, will further deepen and extend Funding Societies' reach to providing credit access to underserved MSME segments in the region.
While the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has grown its middle-class and gained tremendous traction in terms of increasing access to formal banking services and digitalising its commercial environment, the region still has a US$2.5 trillion credit access gap, making up over half of the global shortfall in small business financing[1]. To put into perspective, up to 99.9% of enterprises are MSMEs contributing to 35% to 69% of each country's gross domestic product (GDP)[2].
Co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies, Kelvin Teo, said, "The continued support from a global bank such as HSBC is a testament to its commitment to support the development of digital platform businesses such as ours and MSMEs as we ride through a two-decade high interest rates impacting the global economy. This enables us to further explore scalable debt financing for growth and profitability, and bolster financial inclusion for the underbanked and underserved SMEs in the region."
As part of its ASEAN Growth Fund strategy, this transaction underlines a scalable solution to allow and enable digital lenders like Funding Societies to raise additional equity capital and debt financing through different channels. Furthermore, HSBC will act as the structuring bank, lender, account bank, FX counterparty, facility and security agent in providing a scalable and pan-regional financing solution to support Funding Societies' business expansion in the region.
Harish Venkatesan, Head of Corporates and Business Banking, HSBC Singapore, said, "As an early-starter and a leading MSME digital financing player in ASEAN, we are pleased to provide our third credit facility for Funding Societies, cumulatively in excess of US$100 million. This will enable us to continue supporting its efforts to provide financing support to micro, small and medium enterprises which will contribute to the building blocks of societies in the ASEAN region. We look forward to continuing support for Funding Societies as they grow their business and for the underlying MSMEs in the region through the HSBC ASEAN Growth Fund."
The US$1 billion HSBC ASEAN Growth Fund was launched in March 2024 to enable Singapore-based digital platform businesses supporting e-commerce in the region to achieve economies of scale across multiple international markets, grow their asset portfolios, and advance along the corporate lifecycle. Together with the New Economy and Venture Debt Fund, HSBC Singapore offers a comprehensive suite of financing solutions for new economy businesses across different stages of growth[3].
This announcement comes at the heels of Funding Societies' most recent strategic investments from Maybank in September.
Since its inception in 2015, Funding Societies has disbursed over US$4 billion in business financing, positively impacting more than 100,000 businesses across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as processed an annualised US$1.4 billion in payments GTV (gross transaction value) since its entry into payments in late 2022.
[1] SME Finance Forum - MSME Finance Gap
[2] United Nations Development Programme - Building MSME Resilience in Southeast Asia
[3] HSBC scales up support for Singapore's new economy businesses - About HSBC | HSBC Singapore
About Funding Societies | Modalku
Funding Societies | Modalku is the largest unified SME digital finance platform in Southeast Asia. It is licensed in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, registered in Malaysia, and operates in Vietnam. The FinTech company provides US$1 billion annually of business financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In recent years, it has made strategic milestones including its acquisition of regional digital payments platform CardUp and co-investment into Bank Index in Indonesia.
Funding Societies | Modalku is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Maybank, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, CGC Digital (the digital arm of the Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad), SBVA (previously SoftBank Ventures Asia), Peak XV Partners (previously Sequoia Capital India), Alpha JWC Ventures, SMBC Bank, BRI Ventures, VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, Endeavor, EBDI, SGInnovative, Qualgro, and Golden Gate Ventures among others.
It has received accolades through the years including: Brands for Good (2019, 2023), Global SME Excellence Award, Global SME Finance Awards by IFC (2021-2023) Global Startup Awards (2020), MAS FinTech Award (2016, 2021), Singapore's Fastest-Growing Companies 2024 (a list of 100 companies compiled by The Straits Times and Statista), High-Growth Companies in Asia-Pacific 2024 (a list of 500 companies compiled by the Financial Times and Statista) .
For more information, please visit: www.fundingsocieties.com
About The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is the founding member of the HSBC Group. HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 60 countries and territories. With assets of US$2,975bn as of 30 June 2024, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Funding Societies secures third credit facility with HSBC to extend access to MSMEs in Southeast Asia
