How Kelvin Teo Built Southeast Asia’s Largest SME FinTech Empire - E678
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
How do you scale a FinTech company across 5 countries while navigating global pandemics and regulatory shifts? In this episode of the BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, Jeremy Au sits down with Kelvin Teo, Co-founder of Funding Societies | Modalku. Kelvin shares his incredible journey from being a "naive" Harvard MBA student to managing a platform that has disbursed over $5 Billion USD in SME financing.
In this episode:
The "First Principles" of Credit: Why traditional banking models fail SMEs and how Funding Societies rewrote the rules for Southeast Asia.
The McKinsey & Harvard DNA: How elite professional training helped (and hindered) the founding of a startup.
Mastering Regional Scale: The strategic logic behind expanding into Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Crisis Leadership: Facing social media backlash during layoffs and the "brave" decisions required to survive the FinTech winter.
M&A Strategy: Why Funding Societies acquired CardUp and the secret to integrating mindset over org structure.
Whether you are a founder, a VC, or an aspiring entrepreneur in the SEA ecosystem, Kelvin’s insights on concentration risk, counterparty trust, and regional diversification are essential listening.
00:00 - Facing Joblessness at Harvard
02:02 - Introduction to Funding Societies
05:15 - Why Choose HBS Over Private Equity?
10:52 - Finding the Right Co-founder (Reynold Wijaya)
21:50 - The Regional Strategy: Singapore vs. Indonesia
31:10 - Learning from Defaults and Concentration Risk
40:35 - Acquiring CardUp & The Future of Payments
41:28 - Being Brave: Regulatory Hurdles & Layoffs
Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/kelvin-teo-built-sme-fintech-empire-funding-societies
Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at https://www.bravesea.com
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