P2P platform to raise funds on ECF

Move will help boost awareness for alternative funding

PEER-to-peer (P2P) platform Fundaztic is looking to increase its paid-up capital to RM15.5mil through an equity crowdfunding (ECF) campaign via pitchIN.

“We are confident that the 3 million shares that will be made available through ECF will receive overwhelming response as preliminary indication of interest is already nearing 11 million,” said Kristine Ng, chief executive officer of Peoplender Sdn Bhd, the company that owns and manages Fundaztic.

Peoplender started with a paidup capital of RM5mil.

“This tremendous interest is testimonial of trust towards the performance of Fundaztic currently and projections for the future. We take this as motivation to spur growth and host even more notes each week to underserved but viable SMEs,” added Ng.

Fundaztic’s ECF campaign will go live on Oct 17.

Members and investors of both Fundaztic and pitchIN will be able to indicate their interest to invest in the campaign during the pre-marketing stage through both platforms.

Prior to investing, they are required to register on both Fundaztic and pitchIN.

“Based on our experience and our record of 100% success rate, we are optimistic that the 3 million shares will be snapped up within a short span of perhaps between 1–2 hours as Fundaztic has already established a proven track record in terms of earnings growth as well as growth in their member base and otes hosted each week,” said Pitch Platforms Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Sam Shafie.

Ng noted that this alliance between Fundaztic and PitchIN will boosting awareness, trust and acceptance in the P2P and ECF industries.

“PitchIN is very selective in the campaigns that we choose to host and this is why the 22 campaigns that have gone live all managed to raise the funding required and are all growing their businesses as projected.

“We are very pleased to form this alliance with Peoplender, as it has disbursed approximately RM28mil to over 300 SMEs to-date with a default rate of about 1.3% only. We are happy that they have chosen to raise funds using ECF and pitchIN, in specific, because it provides a strong synergistic effect for the entire alternative funding ecosystem,” added Sam.

Funds raised through this exercise will be utilised to boost Fundaztic’s offerings and resourc- es with the aim of tripling the disbursement amount to SMEs and micro businesses by end of 2019. In tandem with technology advancements, funds will be utilised to beef-up technology and security.

Another major innovation that Fundaztic will be coming up with would be the secondary market which allows investors to trade their investments within the platform for early exits. This would mean that although an investor had invested in a 36 months note, once the secondary market is available on Fundaztic, if the investor needs emergency funds, it is possible to trade the note anytime within the funding tenure.

“This feature is important as it adds flexibility to investing on Fundaztic,” explained Ng.

“We are strongly confident that ECF is a viable option because it is regulated by the Securities Commission and by raising funds through ECF, we are allowing more participation from individuals and companies who find our business model attractive.

“The more awareness we are able to build, the faster the industry grows and with it, greater access to funding and investment opportunities are created for the benefit of the economy,” she said.