Four firms from Singapore raise combined S$1m on FundedHere

Singapore

FOUR companies from Singapore have raised a combined S$1 million from local crowdfunding platform FundedHere, becoming the first to get funding from accredited investors registered with the platform.

Of the four firms, three are startups and one is a private education provider.

The private education provider, FTMSGlobal, and one of the startups, Chloros Solutions, obtained short-term crowdlending loans through FundedHere.

"As a local startup, the crowdfunded bridging loan raised from FundedHere is timely and critical. We were pleasantly surprised by how smooth the process was, from submission through to actual transfer of funds," said Peter Goh, managing director of Chloros Solutions.

The two other startups, medical technology firm DeNova Sciences Pte Ltd and an energy management firm whose name was not disclosed, raised seed capital on the platform.

"We are pleased to be among the first few local startups to tap equity crowdfunding through FundedHere," said Daniel Tan, CEO of DeNova Sciences. "For companies like ours, this is an alternative to venture capital. I believe the ease of using FundedHere and the speed at which the funds come in will encourage more startups to use the platform."

The initial four crowdfunding campaigns on the platform were shortlisted from more than 200 startups that submitted pitch decks to FundedHere.

More than a dozen individual accredited investors (AIs) participated in the fundraising for the first four campaigns, with venture capitalist fund Midana Capital being an anchor investor in two of the campaigns, FundedHere said.

The platform, which went live on April 1 this year, focuses on promising startups looking to raise between S$100,000 and S$1,000,000 in seed capital or crowdlending.

FundedHere is the first local crowdfunding platform to have been awarded the Capital Markets Services Licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which allows it to deal in securities.

"Since commencing operations, we have received numerous enquiries from startups and AIs. We are elated by the response, which demonstrates that licensed crowdfunding is gaining rapid acceptance as a vital component of the local startup eco-system," said FundedHere CEO Michael Tee.