Singapore Exchange to support capital access for the start-up and SMEs 

Singapore Exchange

Singapore Exchange (“SGX”) today announced the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding (“MOU”) separately with Crowdonomic Media Pte Ltd (“Crowdo”) and PwC’s Venture Hub, as part of its drive towards supporting and facilitating capital access for the start-up and early stage Small and Medium Enterprises (“SMEs”) communities.

Mohamed Nasser Ismail, Head of Equity Capital Market (SME) and Head of Capital Market Development, SGX said, “As a market operator, we believe our established infrastructure and network can support and improve access to capital for early-stage companies. We have been involved in the start-up and early stage SMEs space starting from our partnership with CapBridge, as well as the provision of depository services for FundedHere’s proprietary bonds platform. ”

“Moving forward, we will continue to work with relevant like-minded stakeholders to facilitate better access to expertise and growth capital for these early stage companies,” he added.

Crowdo is a regional peer to peer lending and equity crowdfunding platform with operations in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It has obtained a full Securities Crowdfunding Licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, making it the first licensed P2P lending platform in ASEAN. As at end March 2017, Crowdo has financed a total of 2,000 projects.

PwC’s Venture Hub is a unit within PwC that aims to provide a one-stop shop approach to providing solutions and services to motivated entrepreneurs, investors, corporate and accelerators within the venture ecosystem, helping them to accelerate their growth and expand into their key markets.

Areas of collaboration outlined by the MOU signed between SGX and Crowdo include raising awareness amongst the SMEs and the investing community about the various opportunities and channels available to raise capital in Singapore; information sharing to create efficient access to capital for SMEs; and mutually developing guidelines for the cross-referral of potential clients.

As part of the MOU signed between SGX and PwC’s Venture Hub, areas of collaboration include jointly promoting Singapore as an attractive ecosystem for start-ups, fast growing innovative companies and the investing community; arranging regular dialogues to further develop thought leadership within the start-up community; and raising awareness about the various opportunities and channels to grow in the Asia Pacific region, using Singapore as a hub.

Leo Shimada, Co-Founder and CEO of Crowdo, said “This partnership creates a powerful combination of a regional early stage and pre-IPO financing platform via Crowdo, and a competitive public market solution via SGX. This is great for start-ups and SMEs who will benefit from broader financing options and a seamless financing journey.”

Antony Eldridge, FinTech Leader and Financial Services Leader, PwC Singapore concludes, “We are proud to be part of this collaboration, spearheaded by SGX, to further enhance Singapore’s start-up ecosystem by sharing PwC’s expertise in areas such as business strategy and structuring, global market access, and regulatory compliance.  Singapore is well positioned to become a global innovation hub, a belief that drove us to establish PwC’s Venture Hub in Singapore. We are committed to playing an instrumental role in supporting Singapore’s fast-growing start-ups.  Important collaborations such as this will go a long way to build up the necessary skills and capabilities in entrepreneurs, thus helping to accelerate the growth and expansion of Singapore’s start-ups, both at home and across the region.”

Source: SGX

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