AI-driven microlending is expanding access to business finance

This article was first published every week on July 14, 2025 – July 20, 2025 at Edge Edge Edge, Malaysia.

It is no secret that small and medium-sized businesses face high barriers, particularly to obtain financial support from traditional banks. High collateral requirements, complex lending processes and limited financial literacy often prevent micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) from seeking loans, with 95% relying solely on personal and family savings to fund ventures.

Fumiko Inada, CEO of Bee Informatica Sdn Bhd, Micro-fornding Financial Technology Company, is determined to address this issue.

Originally from Japan, Inada came to Malaysia in 2015 and is on the mission to create a world where all small and medium-sized businesses are fairly valued and accessible to fundraising. Inspired by Bangladeshi's Economist Hammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank's Nobel Prize-winning work, she sought to fill the gap in funding for small and medium-sized businesses in Southeast Asia, starting from Malaysia.

“When I was studying in college, I always dreamed of working in social business and combining funds with social influence. Eleven years later in the financial industry, I discovered that microfinance was the path for me,” Inada says.

She began her career as an accountant for the Bank of Japan in 2003 and became a financial analyst at Rakuten Trade, a Japanese securities company in 2010. While playing a variety of roles in the country's financial industry, Inada's passion for social finance ignited when he took part in a learning tour to Bangladesh by Rakuten.

“We spent two weeks in Dhaka, and on that tour I'll help you meet rural women and learn how to apply for finance basics and jobs and more,” she recalls.

“[The tour was organised] By financial institutions, it was also like a school that provided tactics on how to do tasks, how to make money, management, and quality control. During the tour, women in the clothing industry were taught how to create final products with a certain level of quality, and the financial institutions involved supported not only financial literacy but other aspects such as marketing. ”

This prompted Interada to solve a deeper problem. For example, someone helped change the flow of income. She then began working with experts in technology, social businesses and start-up companies.

In 2016, she met Manjur Mahmud. ManjurMahmud co-founded Bee Informatica, overseeing the technology for a platform now known as Funsdingbee, and found himself sharing his vision of expanding digital microfinance across Asia.

After evaluating various markets, they decided that Malaysia was the ideal starting point. Japan's microfinance sector was already mature, with sophisticated infrastructure, and Bangladesh was still in its early stages. However, Malaysia is in a pivotal development stage and is a promising market for its business model.

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

In April, the company acquired a digital lending license from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) and is in line with the government's budget 2025 digital inclusion, SME support and artificial intelligence (AI).

This allows the company to be positioned for financial inclusion and build an AI-driven microlending platform. Inada says the platform will help fill the gaps left by the traditional financial system that overlooks many underserved Malaysians.

According to the press conference, the new license will allow the platform to fully offer digital loan processing. Borrowers can complete everything online, from verifying their electronic customer (e-kyc) to e-signing using a phone or computer. The company also uses AI, including optical character recognition and automatic risk analysis to review applications and approve loans in just 2-3 hours with minimal paperwork.

Inada said the challenge of getting funds is even greater for women-run businesses.

“Women entrepreneurs are growing, they have a huge desire to grow and run their business actively. But somehow, some of them really couldn't compare to men,” she says.

If financial access isn't that much of a problem, Inada observes women still lack networking opportunities and connections to grow their businesses.

“Women sometimes miss out on important information about business growth because they have fewer experiences and fewer networking opportunities than men. Women take time to expand and need support, especially early on. They faced the same challenges when they were growing their business,” adds Inada.

According to a 2020 National Chamber of Commerce Malaysia and Industrial Industry (NCCIM) survey, the title “How to revive Domestic Direct Investment (DDI)?” faces hitch when applying for working capital loans, with 52.3% of SMEs respondents applying for working capital loans.

To address this growing challenge, Bee Informatica offers loans in a variety of sectors, serving micro-enterprise owners who do not qualify for bank loans but require substantial capital.

We currently offer loans to MSMEs ranging from RM10,000 to RM50,000 to RM50,000. The company employs a unique credit scoring model that evaluates applicants based on six months' cash flow records from bank statements, and psychometric tests have been developed in-house to assess their willingness and ability to repay. It aims to remove barriers to financial access by leveraging alternative credit scoring.

The company charges an interest rate of 12% per year and an additional 12% on processing fees.

“This is because it's relatively fast when approving a loan. The approval process takes a business day or two, and uses an AI-based engine for cash flow analysis. It's still there for human agents to verify, but it's completely digitized operations,” says Inada.

Bee Informatica's credit scoring model relies on cash flow analysis, which accounts for 90% of the valuation, and psychometric testing contributes to the remaining 10%. The platform also leverages AI to streamline the lending process.

“All assessment processes and information gathering are carried out digitally, leveraging AI to minimize manual analysis. This digital approach can significantly reduce the time frame for assessment,” she adds.

To date, Inada said the company has given microloans to more than 116 entrepreneurs a total of RM486,000.

It also raises approximately RM3 million from accumulated funds and plans to achieve its targets for the next stock funding round. The final round of August 2024 was led by angel investors including Delight Ventures, corporate venture capital firms, Fordigit and Luatsu.

“I want to develop MSMEs more and establish or grow their business. Companies need more funds to grow. I've found that MSMES also needs at least RM10,000 to RM30,000 depending on the size.

“Our next step is to help businesses grow too, for example, as the next step to supporting small businesses, especially women-led small businesses, is to hold physical networking events in their offices.

Subscribe and save us for prints and/or digital copies.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.