More Than 400 Philippine SMEs Sold Invoices on Acudeen's Marketplace

The invoice is the most common asset a small business owns and the most useless one for getting a loan. In the Philippines, where SMEs account for 99.5% of businesses, that gap is a chronic cash-flow problem. Acudeen, a Manila-based fintech founded in 2016, built a marketplace to turn those unpaid invoices into working capital. It connects SMEs with financing partners who bid to advance cash against receivables owed by blue-chip customers. The company reported financing over Php 500 million in invoices since its launch, serving more than 400 Philippine SMEs by March 2018 [Fintech News Singapore, March 2018].

The Invoice Discounting Wedge

Acudeen's model is straightforward. An SME uploads an invoice from a creditworthy, often multinational, customer. A network of financing partners, including banks and institutional funders, can then bid to purchase that receivable at a discount. The SME gets cash, often within five days according to company claims [Acudeen.com, retrieved 2026]. The funder gets a short-term, invoice-backed asset. The company's initial wedge was solving delayed-payment problems for underbanked SMEs who struggled with conventional bank lending [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, Unknown].

This focus on receivables from established obligors is key. It mitigates risk for the financing side, making the proposition more palatable for partners like Rizal Microbank, which provided a reported $6 million financing facility in 2017 [Tracxn, Unknown]. The platform began with P50 million in initial capital from investors including JJ Atencio of 8990 Holdings and angels from Singapore and Switzerland [Manila Bulletin, March 2018].

The Team and Traction

The founding team blends local commercial insight with technical banking experience. CEO Mario Jordan “Magellan” Fetalino III is the public face, a founder motivated by the cash-flow problems he observed in small businesses [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, Unknown]. Co-founder Mario Salazar brought a background in banking technology from a role supporting the Development Bank of Singapore [Manila Bulletin Business, March 2018]. Chief Development Officer Yacine Derradji has discussed the model publicly, noting that more than $6 million had been financed through the platform by mid-2018 [CoinGeek, May 2018].

Traction came through a combination of competition wins and bank partnerships. The company's early validation was a $500,000 equity prize from winning the Seedstars World competition in 2017 [Tech Wire Asia, April 2017]. The subsequent deal with Rizal Microbank provided the capital to scale the invoice financing operation. Reported volume milestones tell the story of early adoption.

Metric	Value
2017 Volume	3 M USD
Cumulative to 2019	500 M PHP
SMEs Served (Mar 2018)	400 SMEs

The Blockchain Pivot and Its Questions

By 2018, Acudeen's narrative expanded beyond the basic marketplace. The company announced plans to migrate its platform to blockchain and launched an ACU token sale with a goal of raising up to $35 million [BusinessWorld Online, August 2018]. The stated aim was to use the proceeds for geographic expansion across Southeast Asia and to build a more transparent, efficient ledger for invoice transactions [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, Unknown].

The blockchain move presented both ambition and uncertainty. On one hand, it aimed to address a core friction in trade finance: trust and verification between disparate parties. On the other, the proposed token sale's completion was not independently verified in the available public record [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, Unknown]. Sources indicate the ACU token was listed on the Stellar platform and on the BTCEXA exchange [Bitget, Unknown] [BitPinas, Unknown], but the scale of capital raised remains unclear. This shift introduced execution risk, layering a complex technological and regulatory undertaking onto a still-nascent core business.

The Competitive Landscape and Scale Challenge

Acudeen's early-mover advantage in the Philippine SME invoice space is clear from its reported metrics. The primary competitive pressure is not from a direct clone but from the broader, entrenched alternatives available to businesses.

• Traditional Bank Loans. The incumbent system that largely excludes the SMEs Acudeen serves. Its inefficiency is Acudeen's opportunity, but banks could develop their own digital factoring products.
• Informal Financing. A high-cost, often predatory market that thrives where formal credit is absent. Acudeen competes on price and reliability.
• Regional Fintechs. While no direct competitors are named in sources, the model is replicable. Scale and lender network density become the defensible moat.

The company's answer to scaling lies in its blockchain thesis and partnership strategy. The proposed blockchain platform aims to lower transaction costs and attract a global pool of funders, thereby increasing liquidity for SMEs. Deepening relationships with local banks like Rizal Microbank provides a steady capital source while the technology layer is built.

The Next Twelve Months

For a company founded in 2016, the next phase is about proving the expansion thesis. The early seed funding from Seedstars World and the strategic capital from Rizal Microbank financed the initial proof of concept. The reported Php 500 million in cumulative volume demonstrates product-market fit in the Philippines. The question now is whether the blockchain pivot can unlock the Southeast Asian market as intended.

Key milestones to watch include any new banking partnerships, clarity on the token sale's outcome, and volume growth outside the Philippines. The founding team, with Fetalino's advocacy in forums like the Fintech Alliance Philippines, is positioned to navigate the local regulatory environment [ContactOut, Unknown].

The bet rests on a simple premise: the invoice discounting gap in emerging Southeast Asia is vast, and a digital marketplace with a trusted ledger can capture it. Seedstars World wrote a $500,000 check on that premise in 2017. Rizal Microbank backed it with a $6 million facility later that year. The platform has since financed over half a billion Philippine pesos in invoices. The forward question is whether that early traction in Manila can become a regional network, or if the technological leap will prove a distraction from a solid core business.

Sources

1. [Fintech News Singapore, March 2018] PH Fintech Acudeen Taps Blockchain Frenzy With New Platform and Crypto Token | https://fintechnews.sg/18297/fintechphilippines/ph-fintech-acudeen-taps-blockchain-frenzy-with-new-platform-and-crypto-token/
2. [Acudeen.com, retrieved 2026] Acudeen company website | https://www.acudeen.com
3. [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, Unknown] Acudeen company brief |
4. [Tracxn, Unknown] Acudeen - 2025 Company Profile, Team & Funding - Tracxn | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/acudeen/__V3neJoiYO3dj5GNP3wuLGoJY-x7Elvw258yOr2GhayU
5. [Manila Bulletin, March 2018] Acudeen: The face of financial inclusion | https://mb.com.ph/2018/03/06/acudeen-the-face-of-financial-inclusion/
6. [Manila Bulletin Business, March 2018] Manila Bulletin Business article |
7. [CoinGeek, May 2018] Acudeen expands financing services for PH MSMEs | https://coingeek.com/acudeen-extends-direly-needed-financial-services-msmes-philippines/
8. [Tech Wire Asia, April 2017] Philippines: Fintech innovator Acudeen takes home $500k grand prize at Seedstars | https://techwireasia.com/2017/04/philippines-fintech-innovator-acudeen-takes-home-500k-grand-prize-seedstars/
9. [BusinessWorld Online, August 2018] BusinessWorld Online article |
10. [Bitget, Unknown] Bitget article on ACU token |
11. [BitPinas, Unknown] BitPinas article on ACU token |
12. [ContactOut, Unknown] ContactOut profile for Mario Jordan Fetalino III |
13. [Fintech News Singapore, January 2019] Fintech Startup Partnership to Better Serve Philippine SMEs | https://fintechnews.sg/27905/fintechphilippines/fintech-startup-partnership-to-better-serve-philippine-smes/