pitchIN, has concluded its fundraising exercise and closed the end of its equity crowdfunding session with around RM5.5 million raised from 322 investors.
Chief Executive Officer, Sam Shafie said, “I thank the investors for their support in making our deal one of the largest ECF campaigns ever in Malaysia. Our campaign target was RM5 million. There are over 900,000 SMEs in Malaysia alone. What we have done to date is just the beginning. pitchIN has lots of potential to unlock.”
Kashminder Singh, pitchIN CSO added, “We are overwhelmed by the support shown by investors for our first ever fundraising campaign. In 2015, we launched pitchIN with our own funds because we believed in the importance of democratising the fundraising industry.”
“We are grateful for the opportunity to build a platform that has assisted 112 SMEs and startups in raising financing from over 5500 investors. With these extra funding, we will be able to provide our services to more SMEs and startups.”
The ECF campaign was attended by serial entrepreneur and startup investor Ganesh Kumar Bangah, ex-MCMC Chairman Dato Sharil Tarmizi, Chan Kok San, co-founder of publicly traded company Aimflex Bhd, and Simpson Wong Kean Hin, Managing Director of Shellys Marketing Sdn Bhd, which operates XES shoe outlets.
“pitchIN has emerged as one of the most effective fund-raising options for entrepreneurs and SMEs in Malaysia. I strongly believe that pitchIN has become the organization that has most positively contributed to solving this issue in Malaysia. I have chosen to invest because I believe that pitchIN has an even larger role to play in the funding ecosystem and look forward to supporting them in their journey,” Ganesh Kumar added.
Simpson Wong, Managing Director of Shellys Marketing Sdn Bhd, which operate the XES shoes outlets said, “I run a fast growing company and when I looked at pitchIN, I could see that they are leading in their industry and has good prospects. Furthermore, the pitchIN ECF platform is very useful to SMEs and I am happy to be able to help fund pitchIN’s expansion, which will contribute to the growth of Malaysian SME companies.”
pitchIN is also in the final stages of raising an additional RM5 million from institutional investors in addition to this RM5.5 million.
“We set out to raise RM10 million in total, with RM5 million put aside for institutional investors. We have located the investors and anticipate that the sum will be closed quite soon,” Sam added.
This funding will allow pitchIN to grow its operations and provide additional services to more businesses and investors. Later this year, pitchIN will launch a secondary market for its ECF platform. It has also sought a permit to run an IEO platform. The company also intends to develop additional services in the coming years
