PETALING JAYA: MADCash Sdn Bhd, a fintech startup focused on providing zero-interest microfunds to women entrepreneurs, has completed its pre-series A funding round, securing RM5 million investment led by Artem Ventures with support from MSW Ventures and ScaleUp Founders Fund.
These funds will be used to enhance the company’s online platform using AI technology, cover operational and marketing expenses, and explore expansion opportunities within the Southeast Asia region.
MADCash (Multiply, Assist, Donate Cash) funds and grows unbanked and underbanked women entrepreneurs, aiming to create an alternative credit scoring to increase their future bankability.
Managing director Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin said they are happy to have new partners onboard at this critical juncture when they have so much in the work pipeline including launching MADCash Academy soon.
With the support from Artem, MSW and ScaleUp, she added, they can now make a bigger impact on society.
Artem Ventures principal Tunku Omar Asraf said, “By offering financial inclusion and capacity building to these groups of women entrepreneurs, MADCash is a platform that helps underserved entrepreneurs to build their credit scoring and sharpen their entrepreneurship skills. MADCash recognises the importance of financial inclusion for closing the gap of poverty and gender inequality, which can lead to better economic growth in the SEA region.”
MSW Ventures’ Jeffrey Seah said that supporting the unbanked and underbanked has been a digital economy problem looking for a sustainable solution, especially in the development economy of micro-financed entrepreneurship.
He added that Nuraizah has demonstrated a strong grasp of the complex and ever-changing agendas among the institutional and strategic stakeholders, forging a programme-based business model that can serve to realise the potential of women entrepreneurs, providing them with a level of self-sufficiency beyond sustenance.
“This is my second cheque in support of Nuraizah’s MADCash, she epitomises the characteristics of an Asia Fund X founder,” said Seah.
Meanwhile ScaleUp Malaysia senior partner Renuka Sena said when Nuraizah joined their accelerator programme in 2022 MADCash had only supported 83 women with just US$20,000 as microfunds.
“Since then, her team has focused on raising more funds under management to US$700,000 and improving their processes to deploy funds to more deserving women. MADCash demonstrates the quality of founders that we at ScaleUp aim to support all the way,” she added.
By the end of this year, MADCash is set to have extended its support to more than 800 women.
