Malaysia’s Securities Commission (SC) announced last month that six P2P platforms were registered and would continue to be overseen by the Government of Malaysia, making Malaysia the first ASEAN country to regulate P2P financing. The six platforms include B2B FinPAL, Ethis Kapital, FundedByMe Malaysia, ManagePay Services, Modalku Ventures, and Peoplender.
B2B FinPal, Ethis Kapital, FundedByMe Malaysia, ManagePay Services, Modalku Ventures and Peoplender 6 new #P2P financing platform operators pic.twitter.com/dWAvzhRjzo
— SC Malaysia (@SecComMY) November 3, 2016
Some of the platforms are already live online, while others are not quite there yet. All are expected to be fully operational sometime next year. Of the ready platforms, lets explore how they distinguish themselves from one another.
Advertised as the “World’s first and only licensed #IslamicCrowdfunding P2P platform”, Ethis Kapital is the result of a merger between Ethis Crowd and Kapital Boost, led by Umar Munshi and Erly Witowo respectively. Ethis Kapital touts about 18,000 members by the time it launches, and it will operate in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
FundedByMe Malaysia
FundedByMe claims that it has distributed nearly 30 million EUR to 460 companies that are operating in 178 countries to date. FundedByMe Malaysia ran two campaigns that are now closed: “iTalent Management – Enterprise Digital HR Automation” and “Halal Speed Dating“.
ManagePay has three subsidiaries, including Managed Payment Services (MPSB), Sinatec, and Whatdevice. MPSB currently invests in medium to large businesses’ R&D, claiming that it has invested in RM6,000,00 (approximately $136K) to date. It appears that the P2P portion of ManagePay’s business has yet to be built as the other two subsidiaries focus on software and card payments.
Based in Indonesia but run by a team with ties to Malaysia and Singapore, Modalku says that it is “one of the pioneers of P2P lending in Indonesia”. The company also says that it offers business loans and alternative investment products with competitive interest rates to SMEs, as well as a “safe investment alternative” for lenders.
New Straits Times reported that Deputy Minister of Finance Johari Abdul Ghani said that there is great potential in leveraging P2P platforms to fundraise for Malaysia in the same manner that such platforms reaped $25 billion for the U.S. in 2015. Ghani reportedly told local reporters;
“It is estimated that this segment will grow to US$96 billion in 2025. Going with that, Malaysia is also set to get a slice of that pie since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has declared that 2017 to be the year of the Internet Economy for Malaysia.”
