Launch of S'pore's 1st startup stock exchange expected by mid-year

Singapore

A STARTUP stock exchange that aims to help early-stage companies find funding for their businesses, bridging the financing gap between crowdfunding sites and traditional stock exchanges, is expected to be launched in Singapore this year.

Plans for the exchange are still in a nascent stage. But Curacao-based Startup Stock Exchange (SSX), which was acquired in May 2016 by the International Stock Exchange Group (ISEG) for an undisclosed sum, hopes to get it up and running by the middle of this year.

The exchange, to be called SSX, will be the first such platform here for investors to buy shares in startups - and for such companies to raise the capital they need to grow and expand.

Edward Fitzpatrick, founder of ISEG, told The Business Times last month that a key objective of the platform is to help crowdfunded companies raise subsequent financing - filling what he said is an expanding funding gap between crowdfunding sites and big board stock exc…