Connecting Investors with startups in Asia
On 3 March 2015, Mr. Andy Lim officially revealed his specially crafted gift, “FundedHere”, to both young entrepreneurs who are full of passion and imagination ,and investors with foresight and rising need for alternative investments.
“FundedHere” literally means getting your businesses funded right here. Yet its value proposition targets both ways: helping entrepreneurs avoid the hassle of securing early funding and offering investors with a pool of good-quality business projects for potential investment.
Ever since its official launch, “FundedHere” has been receiving heavy spotlight from the press. Channel NewsAsia, The Business Times and The Straits Times were the leading media players that jump into the spree.
The welcoming response from the press not only resulted from their anticipation on how Mr. Andy Lim, the serial local entrepreneur who had founded a handful of successful businesses, would wow the crowd this time round, but also from their recognition that FundedHere came fully prepared.
Needless to say, today “Crowdfunding” has been the buzzword. We did observe trend-catchers of other players who indeed enter the market at a first mover advantage. Nonetheless, FundedHere came undaunted as it has distinguished itself in three main aspects:
Strong team and extensive support determine how far you can go
Mr Andy Lim is leading a team of experts who have both previous experiences as entrepreneurs and investment advisers. During the process of creating FundedHere, such relevant experiences enabled the team to bring up firsthand feedback and input to enhance the user experience of the site. Also, FundedHere is connected to various corporate players across sectors. Andy, was one of such big financial players that help FundedHere move forward behind the scene.
Crowdfunding isn’t just about match making
Existing sites have been always focusing on the primary function of a crowdfunding platform — to match investors and entrepreneurs. However, with Andy’s extensive connection with local experts in various industries, FundedHere is also able to provide mentorship services to promising entrepreneurial projects. Dr. Jeremy Lim, Partner at Oliver Wyman, and Ms Elim Chew, Founder and President of 77th Street, are among the list of advisors who could offer valuable suggestions to entrepreneurs to improve on the campaigning projects, which in turn enhances their chances of securing funding successfully.
Legal issues are not to be played with
Currently there is still a vaccum in terms of how crowdfunding sites should be regulated in Singapore. This has given ample opportunities for small players to jump start their crowsfunding platforms quickly, and yet at the potential risk of getting its license revoked in the future. To FundedHere, on the contrary, legal compliance has been always on the top of our priority list, as we do understand the responsibility that we bear for both entrepreneurs and investors. Currently FundedHere has been in active conversation with Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) regarding the details of relevant legal requirements. It is set to clear all legal concerns before fully launching its operations, with considerable patience.
Now, we need the same level of patience to wait for its fully fledged launch in the near future.
