PETALING JAYA: MyStartr has raised RM8.67 million across eight crowdfunding projects with the help of more than 1,000 investors in its first quarter, CEO Goh Boon Peng said.
He said Mystartr is on track to achieve its total funding target of RM10 million for this year. However, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the movement control order (MCO), the Equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform might miss its target of 20 crowdfunding projects this year.
“In terms of the funding amount, we see no issues with achieving our target, but with the number of projects we will be working hard as we have another 12 projects to complete the target for this year.” Goh said at the company’s virtual first quarter performance reporting session.
With the pandemic and the MCO, Goh estimated Mystartr will manage to achieve at least 17 projects for the year. Currently, the company has three projects which are expected to go up in May or June this year.
In addition, he pointed out that since Mystartr was approved by the Securities Commission (SC) for the Malaysia Co-Investment Fund (MYCIF), two of the projects it handled have managed to benefit from the changes in the co-investment initiatives.
These projects, namely, Logistic Worldwide Express (LWE) and Buynow.com.my have received RM540,000 and RM324,000 respectively from MYCIF.
MyCIF’s matching ratio has increased to 2:1 from 4:1, for an interim period between April 17 and Sept 30, 2020.
Apart from that, the SC has scrapped the RM3 million per campaign limit on ECF and doubled the issuer lifetime limit to RM10 million from RM5 million, previously.
MyStartr commented that these changes bode well for ECF platforms, as they boost confidence for issuers to raise funds via the channel.
Goh said that despite the high lever of interest and large number of enquiries from potential issuers, it has had to enhance its filters because of the Covid-19 pandemic and only lists projects with high potential to investors.
Despite the uncertainties arising from the pandemic, he opined that it is a good time for those looking to raise funds through ECF.
“There is a perception that people are more conservative with their investment in these trying times but with ECF, the investments are made with small amounts. There are a lot of people who are able to invest this small amounts especially those who are looking with future returns in mind.
“Furthermore, this small amount varies from an investor to another, at the platform the minimum amount is RM500, but others might see RM5,000 as a small amount and there also investors that view RM100,000 as a small amount,” Goh said.
Mystartr’s virtual first quarter performance reporting session.
