This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 14, 2025 - July 20, 2025

It is no secret that small businesses face high barriers in obtaining financial assistance, especially from traditional banks. High collateral requirements, complex loan processes and limited financial literacy often deter micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from seeking loans, with 95% relying solely on personal and family savings to fund their ventures.

Fumiko Inada, CEO of Bee Informatica Sdn Bhd, a microlending financial technology company, is determined to address this problem.

A native of Japan, Inada came to Malaysia in 2015 with a mission to create a world where all small businesses are fairly evaluated and can access financing. Inspired by the Nobel Prize-winning work of Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank, she sought to bridge the financing gap for small businesses in Southeast Asia, starting with Malaysia.

“When I was studying at university, I always dreamed of working in social business and merging finance with social impact. After 11 years in the finance industry, I discovered that microfinance was the path for me,” says Inada.

She started her career as an accountant with the Bank of Japan in 2003 and became a financial analyst at Japanese brokerage firm Rakuten Trade in 2010. While holding various roles in the country’s financial industry, Inada’s passion for social finance was ignited when she joined a study tour by Rakuten to Bangladesh.

“We spent two weeks in Dhaka. During that tour, we met women in rural areas to help them learn the basics of finance and how to apply for a job and others,” she recalls.

“[The tour was organised] by a financial institution and it also was like a school that provided tactics on how to do tasks, how to earn money, management and quality control. During the tour, women in the garment industry were taught how to create an end-product with a certain level of quality and the financial institution involved not only helped with financial literacy but also other aspects like marketing.”

This inspired Inada to solve deeper issues, for instance, helping someone change his or her income stream. She then began working alongside professionals in tech, social businesses and start-ups.

In 2016, she met Manjur Mahmud, who co-founded Bee Informatica and now oversees technology for the platform, called FundingBee, and realised they shared a vision for expanding digital microfinance across Asia.

After assessing different markets, they decided Malaysia was the ideal starting point. Japan’s microfinancing sector was already mature, with advanced infrastructure, while Bangladesh was still in its early stages. Malaysia, however, was at a pivotal development phase, making it a promising market for their business model.

“We wanted to expand in Asia because we are Asians. Since my co-founder is Muslim, Malaysia was a natural choice. At that time, Indonesia was still developing its digital financial infrastructure, while Malaysia was ready,” Inada says.

In April, the company acquired a digital lending licence from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT), aligning with the government’s Budget 2025 priorities of digital inclusion, SME support and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption.

This positions the company for financial inclusion, allowing it to build an AI-driven microlending platform. Inada says the platform will help bridge the gaps left by traditional financial systems that have overlooked many underserved Malaysians.

According to a press statement, the new licence allows the platform to offer fully digital loan processing. Borrowers can complete everything online, from electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) verification to e-signatures, using phones or computers. The company also uses AI, including Optical Character Recognition and automated risk analysis, to review applications and approve loans in just two to three hours with minimal paperwork.

The challenge to obtain funding is even greater for businesses run by women, says Inada.

“Women entrepreneurs are growing and they have a large appetite to grow and actively run their businesses. But somehow, some really could not compare with men,” she says.

In instances where financial access is less of a problem, women still lack the networking opportunities and connections to grow their businesses, observes Inada.

“With less experience and fewer networking opportunities than men, women sometimes miss out on vital information about business growth. It takes longer for them to scale, and they need support, especially in the early stages. I faced the same challenges when I was growing my business,” Inada adds.

According to a survey by the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (NCCIM) in 2020 titled “How to Revive Domestic Direct Investment (DDI)?”, 52.3% of SME respondents face hitches when applying for working capital loans while the loan applications of 78.6% of micro enterprises and 63.6% of small enterprises are rejected.

To address this growing challenge, Bee Informatica provides loans in various sectors, catering to micro-enterprise owners who are ineligible for bank loans but require substantial capital.

Currently, it offers loans to MSMEs ranging from RM10,000 to RM50,000. The company employs a proprietary credit scoring model that evaluates applicants based on six months of cash flow records from bank statements, and a psychometric test developed in-house to assess repayment willingness and ability. By leveraging alternative credit scoring, it aims to remove barriers to financial access.

The company charges an interest rate of 12% per year, along with an additional 12% for processing fees.

“This is because comparatively, we are pretty fast when approving the loans. The approval process takes one to two working days and we use an AI-based engine for cash flow analysis. We still have our human agents to verify but we are completely digitalising our operations,” says Inada.

Bee Informatica’s credit scoring model relies on cash flow analysis, which constitutes 90% of the evaluation, with the psychometric test contributing the remaining 10%. The platform also harnesses AI to streamline the lending process.

“All assessment processes and information gathering are conducted digitally, leveraging AI to minimise manual analysis. This digital approach allows us to significantly reduce the assessment timeframe,” she adds.

To date, Inada says the company has given micro loans totalling RM486,000 to over 116 entrepreneurs.

It has also raised about RM3 million in cumulative funding and is planning its next equity fundraising round to raise a targeted US$1.4 million. The last round, in August 2024, was led by Delight Ventures, corporate venture capital companies and angel investors including ForDigit and Luatsu.

“I want to further nurture MSMEs to establish or grow their business. For a company to grow, more funds are needed. Even for MSMEs, we found that they need at least RM10,000 to RM30,000, depending on the size. They not only need the capital but also the business network to do this,” Inada adds.

“The next step for us is to help businesses also scale. For instance, we are looking into having physical networking events in our office as the next step to supporting SMEs, particularly women-led SMEs. This opens opportunities for them to gain confidence as well as connect with other businesses.”

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