Singapore’s Pioneer P2P Lender
By SmartLend Editorial | 1st Edition | September 2025
In 2014, a bold experiment took root in Singapore’s finance scene. A former banker named Lawrence Yong launched MoolahSense – the city-state’s first peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform – with a vision to connect everyday investors with local small businesses in need of capital. In a country dominated by big banks, this tiny fintech startup promised a new era of crowdfunding for SME loans. Over the next few years, MoolahSense rode a wave of fintech optimism to impressive highs – only to face daunting challenges that ultimately led to its decline. This is the story of MoolahSense’s meteoric rise and tumultuous fall, and what it teaches business owners today about alternative lending.
A Promising Start: Pioneering P2P Lending in Singapore
When MoolahSense first opened its (virtual) doors, it tapped into a glaring gap in the market: Singapore’s 200,000+ SMEs often struggled to get timely loans from traditional banks. Yong’s platform offered them an alternative – crowd-financed loans from retail investors willing to lend for higher returns. It was a win-win on paper: SMEs gained quick access to working capital, while investors earned interest far above savings deposits. Early results fueled the excitement. One memorable campaign – a S$200,000 note for a security firm – was fully funded in just 30 seconds, showcasing the power of the crowd.
MoolahSense’s credibility got a huge boost in November 2016, when it became the first P2P lender in Singapore to receive a full Capital Markets Services (CMS) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Until then, such platforms operated in a gray area; now MoolahSense was officially regulated, reassuring investors and borrowers alike. The platform expanded its offerings too – introducing invoice financing in 2017 to help SMEs unlock cash tied up in receivables, in addition to its term loans. By partnering with third-party credit assessors and refining its risk models, MoolahSense aimed to keep defaults in check while scaling up.
Momentum was building. Big players took notice – in 2017, DBS Bank inked a cross-referral deal with MoolahSense (and one other platform) to send SMEs rejected for bank loans over to the P2P platform. For a young fintech to collaborate with Singapore’s largest bank was nearly unheard of, underscoring how far MoolahSense had come. By early 2019, the startup boasted more than 15,000 registered investors and over 800 loans funded, channeling roughly S$75 million to local businesses. MoolahSense had helped finance restaurant chains, retailers, and even a publicly-listed company, positioning itself as a true trailblazer in SME crowdfunding.
Reaching the Peak: Hype, Growth, and Inevitable Competition
At its peak, MoolahSense embodied the promise of fintech disruption. Media profiles lauded its mission to “Help Singapore grow” by empowering small businesses. Investors were signing up in droves, enticed by interest rates from 4.5% up to 21% on various loans. The platform even claimed a default rate around 5% in its early years – higher than bank NPLs, but arguably acceptable given the riskier borrowers and double-digit returns. MoolahSense’s MAS license and public showcases (like the inaugural FinTech Festival) gave it first-mover advantage and trust. By 2018, it had inspired a flock of new P2P entrants – Funding Societies (launched 2015) and Validus (2015) among them – but MoolahSense was the name with a head-start.
Under the hood, the company was not standing still. It developed an in-house “MoolahSense Active Intelligence (MAI)” platform with blockchain and AI, aiming to enhance credit scoring and transparency (an initiative highlighted in early 2019) – reflecting a push to leverage cutting-edge tech to stay ahead of newer competitors. On the business side, MoolahSense raised about S$2.1 million in equity funding in its first few years (a modest sum by later fintech standards) and in 2019 struck a strategic partnership with MatchMove, a Singaporean fintech, to jointly expand SME lending. By September 2019, MatchMove had agreed to take a strategic stake in MoolahSense to “power SME lending” via its ecosystem. The idea was that MatchMove’s network of digital wallets and payment users could feed borrower referrals, while MoolahSense’s lending tech would extend MatchMove’s “Spend.Send.Lend” services. It was a clever alliance on paper – pairing a P2P lender with a “banking-as-a-service” platform.
For a moment, MoolahSense seemed poised to break out of startup status and truly challenge traditional lenders. It was Singapore’s P2P poster child, consulted by regulators, courted by partners, and beloved by many SMEs. Yet, even as it rode high, cracks were forming beneath the surface.
Cracks in the Foundation: Rising Defaults and Falling Trust
As loan volumes grew, so did loan defaults – and this would prove MoolahSense’s Achilles’ heel. Unlike banks, P2P platforms pass loan losses directly to the individual investors. By 2019, murmurs began that MoolahSense’s credit performance was faltering. Those murmurs turned into full-blown complaints on investor forums: a “slew of defaults in 2019” left some lenders “borderline four digits in the red,” one user reported. Another long-time investor lamented in late 2020, “I’ve lost more than $5K… super high default rate and now they don’t even provide regular updates.”
MoolahSense’s approach to debt recovery further eroded user confidence. In some cases, when borrowers missed payments, the platform was perceived as slow or reluctant to take legal action. Investors grew frustrated seeing defaulted borrowers “still operating happily” while their loans went unpaid. One particularly bitter anecdote involved a borrower who hired a lawyer to dispute the loan contract on technical grounds – and MoolahSense, apparently spooked, opted not to pursue enforcement, effectively letting the borrower walk away. Such incidents spread through the community, damaging the platform’s reputation for protecting its lenders’ interests.
By late 2020, the situation had deteriorated dramatically. Users reported that MoolahSense’s customer support had become unresponsive – “Those dudes do not answer any phone calls… they made everything unreachable,” one investor wrote in November 2020. Some even had trouble withdrawing remaining funds due to account issues, prompting talk of police reports. To top it off, the website itself went down for periods of time, leaving many to wonder if the platform had quietly collapsed. The pioneer of P2P lending was now facing the classic fintech downfall: a loss of trust.
Multiple factors contributed to MoolahSense’s decline. Underwriting quality was a chief concern – in chasing growth, the platform had funded many higher-risk SMEs, including companies in distressed industries. (For instance, it famously financed Epicentre, a once-prominent Apple reseller, in 2016; a few years later, Epicentre ran into major troubles, likely impairing those loans.) Economic cycles played a role too: by 2019, even before COVID-19, Singapore’s economy had softened, and more SMEs struggled to repay. Then COVID-19 struck in 2020, triggering a wave of business disruptions. As one lender put it, “Covid-19 was the straw that broke the already broken camel’s back” – many loans that were hanging on went bad. Meanwhile, newer competitors like Funding Societies and Validus were gaining ground with (arguably) better risk management and deeper pockets, siphoning off investor funds. MoolahSense, which never raised the kind of hefty venture capital rounds its rivals did, lacked the cushion to absorb setbacks. By the end of 2020, its struggles had reached a breaking point.
The Final Chapter: Acquisition and Rebirth under a New Banner
The fall of MoolahSense didn’t happen with a loud crash; rather, it quietly faded away – and was subsumed by a larger player. In November 2020, amid the pandemic chaos, MoolahSense was acquired by a fintech company called IN Financial Technologies. IN Financial (also known as “INFT”) was founded by a group of local entrepreneurs and was building a one-stop digital financing platform for SMEs. With the acquisition, MoolahSense became a subsidiary of INFT Holdings, effectively giving the new owners a CMS-licensed lending platform overnight.
The MoolahSense brand soon took a backseat. By 2021, the familiar orange-and-white MoolahSense website had been replaced by Infund (styled as “IN Fund”), the investment portal of INFT, and by Cash In Asia, an SME lending portal also under INFT. In other words, MoolahSense’s business was folded into the IN Financial/Cash In Asia ecosystem. (Cash In Asia Pte Ltd, an existing short-term financing platform, became part of the group – the two brands essentially merged.) Internally, the legacy MoolahSense platform continued powering loans, but outwardly, SMEs now applied via CashInAsia.com and investors lent via Infund.co.
Crucially, the original founder Lawrence Yong is no longer running the show. Post-acquisition, INFT’s own leadership took charge – for example, Wong Eldwin, INFT’s co-founder, became a director of MoolahSense Pte Ltd and its sister entities. Yong’s pioneering journey had come to an end, and he has since moved on (he now describes himself as a fintech “pioneer” turned executive coach). The MoolahSense story entered a new chapter under different stewardship.
Interestingly, the new owners did try to reinvent some of MoolahSense’s early promise. In late 2021, they launched “GreenMoolah”, a platform focused on green and sustainable loans for SMEs. Leveraging blockchain-based “GreenTrust” verification, GreenMoolah aimed to help SMEs undertake eco-friendly projects and attract investors interested in ESG – a nod to evolving market trends. While this indicates the MoolahSense platform (by whatever name) is still alive and adapting, it’s telling that these initiatives fly under a different banner. The once-pioneering brand “MoolahSense” has largely vanished from the public eye, remembered as a fintech trailblazer that couldn’t quite go the distance.
What Others Did Better: Funding Societies and Validus Forge Ahead
MoolahSense may have stumbled, but P2P lending in Singapore didn’t die with it – far from it. Competing platforms like Funding Societies and Validus learned from early movers and charted a more sustainable path, now standing as Southeast Asia’s leading SME fintech lenders. Their success, contrasted with MoolahSense’s fate, highlights a few key differentiators:
- Stronger Underwriting & Risk Management: Funding Societies (FS) and Validus managed to keep default rates under control as they scaled. FS reports a <2% default rate in Singapore as of 2025 – an impressively low figure achieved through careful credit scoring, diversified loan portfolios, and robust collections processes. Validus, targeting slightly larger SMEs and secured loans, similarly maintained tighter credit standards. In contrast, MoolahSense’s default rates spiked well into double-digits by 2019-2020 (judging by investor reports), suggesting its risk models or loan selection criteria didn’t hold up. FS and Validus also introduced measures like segmenting loans by risk grades, capping exposure per borrower, and co-investing alongside retail lenders to align interests. These prudent practices helped preserve investor trust – a vital asset that MoolahSense lost when defaults mounted.
- Regulatory Alignment and Credibility: All major P2P platforms eventually obtained MAS licensing, but FS and Validus positioned themselves as partners in the financial system rather than provocateurs. They actively worked with regulators on frameworks (Validus, for example, joined a MAS pilot for invoice financing, and FS was often showcased in fintech initiatives). This paid off: in 2020, Validus won one of Singapore’s coveted digital bank licenses as part of a consortium, a strong vote of confidence in its governance. The platforms also secured backing from established institutions – for instance, HSBC and others provided large credit facilities to Funding Societies to on-lend to SMEs. Such partnerships signaled to the market that these P2P lenders were stable and here to stay. MoolahSense, despite being first to get a license, didn’t cultivate the same level of institutional support. Its setback in early 2016 (when a bank abruptly shut down its account gateway, reportedly due to compliance concerns) hinted at a more confrontational early approach, whereas newer entrants navigated compliance more smoothly.
- User Trust and Customer Experience: From early on, Funding Societies invested heavily in user experience – a slick mobile app for investors, prompt customer service, and frequent updates to lenders about their portfolios. It built a recognizable brand that resonated with younger, tech-savvy investors. Validus focused on accredited and institutional lenders, ensuring they had transparency and even insurance on some loans. These efforts kept lender confidence high even through economic dips. MoolahSense, by contrast, was slower to update its platform interface and, as financial troubles hit, its customer service faltered (as seen in 2020 when calls went unanswered). Trust, once lost, is hard to regain in finance. The numbers tell the story: Funding Societies has now disbursed over US$2.6 billion in SME loans across the region, and Validus over S$5 billion (group-wide) – a scale unimaginable without strong user and investor faith. MoolahSense peaked at about S$75–100 million total, illustrating how trust constrains or amplifies growth.
- Technological Edge and Innovation: All players talked up tech, but FS and Validus turned buzzwords into tangible benefits. FS’s proprietary credit scoring integrates alternative data (e.g. ecommerce sales, utilities data) to assess micro businesses quickly. It also introduced new financing products like short-term “FS Bolt” loans and expense financing to broaden its reach. Validus leveraged data partnerships (such as with government e-invoice platforms) to speed up loan approval and used AI to detect fraud in invoices. MoolahSense too attempted innovation – their MAI (AI/blockchain) initiative and GreenMoolah pivot were commendable – but these came perhaps a bit late, when the platform was already struggling. The competitors simply executed faster and more effectively on the tech front, yielding lower operating costs and better risk monitoring.
In short, Funding Societies and Validus combined the spirit of fintech (fast, user-friendly, innovative) with the rigor of traditional finance (strong underwriting, regulatory compliance, ample capital). MoolahSense excelled at the former but, arguably, couldn’t sufficiently master the latter in time.
Lessons for SMEs (and Investors) Seeking Alternative Financing
For today’s SMEs exploring non-bank financing, MoolahSense’s journey offers several important lessons:
- Short-Term Fix, Long-Term Implications: P2P loans can be a lifeline if used prudently – offering quicker approval and more flexible terms than banks. Many businesses that got funding through MoolahSense were able to seize growth opportunities or solve cash flow crunches. However, SMEs must be mindful of the costs (interest rates on P2P loans are relatively high) and the responsibility to repay hundreds of individual investors. Defaulting on a crowdfunded loan can severely damage a company’s reputation, since news spreads through investor communities quickly. Moreover, unlike negotiating quietly with one bank, defaulting via P2P might mean facing aggressive recovery actions or public disclosure. The lesson: only borrow what you truly need and have a clear repayment plan, because alternative finance is not “easy money” – it’s simply accessible money.
- Regulation Is Catching Up: Back in 2014, MoolahSense had to operate in a gray zone before regulations were set. Today, MAS oversight of crowdfunding is well-established, with investor safeguards and licensing requirements. This is positive for SMEs – it means the platforms you deal with are monitored for proper conduct. For example, MAS requires P2P platforms to hold investor funds in separate escrow accounts (MoolahSense did this with OCBC), and to report data on defaults. As an SME borrower, you should still perform due diligence (just as the platform checks you out). But you can take comfort that the alternative lending industry in Singapore is far more mature and regulated now than a decade ago. The Wild West days are over.
- Have a Plan B: One takeaway from MoolahSense’s fall is the importance of not putting all your eggs in one basket. SMEs reliant on a single platform for repeated funding should cultivate multiple financing channels. Many businesses start with P2P loans to prove their creditworthiness, then “graduate” to bank loans or venture debt as they grow. This progression is healthy. Use that first crowdfunding experience as a springboard – make timely repayments, build your credit profile, and then broaden your options. The government has also expanded schemes like SME Working Capital Loan and others with banks, which might be accessible after you’ve built a track record. In essence, alternative lending is best seen as one piece of your financing strategy, not the only solution.
- The Lender’s Perspective: While our focus is on business owners, it’s worth noting what MoolahSense taught investors too – because investor sentiment directly affects SMEs’ ability to raise funds. Investors learned the hard way about diversification (many who blindly lent across MoolahSense’s platform experienced consistent losses). Now, investors are more discerning, favoring platforms that offer diversified notes or insured tranches. SMEs might notice that newer platforms often have institutional co-investors in each loan or segmented risk tiers; this is to keep the investor base comfortable. The more investors trust the platform, the more funding you as a borrower can likely secure, and at better rates. Thus, earning the crowd’s trust by being a responsible borrower pays off – your next funding round, whether on a P2P platform or elsewhere, may come easier and cheaper.
Conclusion: The Legacy of MoolahSense
MoolahSense’s story arc – from groundbreaking startup to a quiet exit – is a reminder that fintech, especially in lending, is a marathon, not a sprint. The company pioneered a new model in Singapore and proved that crowdfunding SME loans could work, paving the way for those that followed. Its rise demonstrated the real demand among both SMEs and investors for alternatives to traditional banks. Its fall illustrated the perils of scaling without fully controlling credit risk, and the unforgiving nature of trust in finance.
For SMEs, the message is clear: alternative financing is a powerful tool, but choose your partners wisely and use such funding strategically. For fintechs, the caution is equally stark: innovation may win headlines, but only disciplined risk management and strong governance can sustain growth.
Today, as Funding Societies, Validus, and other digital lenders thrive, they do so on a foundation that MoolahSense helped build. And for all its flaws, MoolahSense deserves credit as the pioneer that dared to challenge Singapore’s banking giants – even if it couldn’t quite outlast them.
This post was adapted from our weekly SmartLend newsletter. If you’d like the latest tips, case studies, and SME financing insights delivered straight to your mailbox—join our newsletter here.