FundedByMe confirms expansion into Asia

Following on the success of 2013 - when FundedByMe raised more than €4.2 million for European entrepreneurs from its rapidly-growing membership base, which recently crossed 30,000 – FundedByMe confirmed that one of Wired UK’s top 100 European startups has launched into Asia. The company has opened up an office in Singapore, adding to the existing country list that includes Finland, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Italy and Germany. With this growth has also come a fast-growing team – which stood at three in January 2013 and today is burgeoning at 18 international crowd-financing experts.

Spearheaded by Sunil Rajan as Country Manager, FundedByMe Singapore is the company’s first step outside the European borders and is a giant one for Europe’s fastest-growing crowdfunding platform. “We see Singapore as the gateway to Asia,” says Daboczy. “We will be reaching a massive new market of potential crowd investors who are eager to help us build on the cross-border investment motion that has made FundedByMe a popular choice for European investors looking to expand their investment portfolios. Early feedback tells us that Asian investors are keeping a keen eye on the European start-up scene – and vice versa.”

A former Private Wealth Management sales analyst at a bulge bracket bank, Rajan has also spent time on the buy-side, managing multi-asset class investment portfolios for a family office in Singapore. He moonlights as an Open Mic stand-up comedian and is also a Finance Executive Director for a South African Non-Profit. Rajan is poised to aggressively launch FundedByMe in Singapore, connecting investors and entrepreneurs on an international level. “Singapore is a melting pot of Asians, Europeans and other internationals. The time for us to offer crowdfunding to both entrepreneurs looking to raise funds and investors looking to diversify their portfolios is just perfect,” he says. “Equity crowdfunding is an unique marriage in the world of finance, where large number of investors have the opportunity to become strategic partners and ambassadors for the companies that they invest in.”

The rise of FundedByMe since its launch in 2011 has been epic. In the past three months the company received a White Bull Bully Award, was listed as one of Wired UK’s top 100 startups and was named one of the top 100 websites in Sweden by InternetWorld. In March 2012 the platform had raised €100,000 for companies needing funding. By March 2013 that figure had risen to just over €2 million. In January 2014 that number is expected to exceed a total of €4.5 million raised from its 30,000 registered members for both equity and reward-based crowdfunding. This figure is steadily in line with the Nesta (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts) Report titled ‘The Rise of Future Finance’, which estimates that crowdfunding will see a 600% growth in the coming year.