Yih Lin Teh

Mastercard Foundation 2019 - 2020

Alumni

Legatum Fellow

From:

Malaysia

Sector:

Financial Services

Location:

Malaysia

Degree:

MBA, Sloan School of Management

Lin’s venture, CapSphere, is the first peer-to-peer (p2p) asset-based financing platform in Malaysia. A recent survey conducted by the Malaysian Central Bank showed that 46% of business owners felt that financing products offered by financial institutions did not meet their business needs. This is due to high financing costs (50%), insufficient financing amount (42%), and onerous documentation requirements (29%). CapSphere addresses this challenge by making Small Medium Enterprise (SME) financing more accessible and efficient. CapSphere provides a platform that connects SMEs to investors and facilitate funds for SME asset purchases. Her venture also offers investors an alternative asset class for portfolio diversification, combining steady cash flows and competitive returns.

Lin is currently an MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is co-president of the MIT Malaysian Students Association and Sloan Southeast Asia Club. Prior to MIT, she was a Project Manager at Dalberg, a Global Development consulting firm. She led diverse and international teams to deliver projects across Asia and Africa with the aim of improving socioeconomic outcomes for bottom-of-the-pyramid populations. In one of her previous projects, she operationalized a student loan programme in Kenya. Lin completed both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.