KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 29): Peoplender Sdn Bhd, the licensed operator of peer-to-peer financing platform Fundaztic, has raised RM16.6 million via equity crowd-funding platform pitchIN, which will be used to scale up its business in Malaysia and Singapore, and to build new franchises regionally.

"The shares were oversubscribed within 10 days at a pre-money valuation of RM100.8 million, reflecting the confidence of Fundaztic's existing and new shareholders towards its future growth, especially on the fact that it has achieved Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) and PBT (profit before tax) positive this year," Peoplender said in a statement.

Peoplender chairman Jeffrey Chew said Fundaztic has been "very successful in supporting Malaysian micro-SMEs, having helped more than 3,000 in the last five years". This, he said, corresponds to more than 50% of the P2P industry market share.

"With the speed of our customer acquisition in the last six months, we hope to reach an 80% market share in due course," he added.

Chew is also the CEO of Paramount Corp Bhd, which acquired a 30% stake in Omexgaxis Sdn Bhd, the holding company of Peoplender, for RM13.7 million in August 2021. Paramount has said the investment is in line with its five-year (2020-2024) strategic plan to identify new sources of earnings, especially those in the digital space.

According to Peoplender, as part of Fundaztic’s journey to expand its business, it will also deploy some of the funds raised to upgrade its technology platform and build capacity to support the wealth management part of the business.

It further said that Fundaztic is committed to its mission to lift financial literacy among the people, especially that of B40s, to help them grow their wealth from the beginning of their working life by investing in higher yield instruments while mitigating investment risk via its proprietary Principal Protect feature.

Established in 2017, Fundaztic is regulated by the Securities Commission in Malaysia while its presence in Singapore is licensed under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

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