Funderbeam takes trading to Singapore
In addition, Funderbeam noted that Taizo Son's investment company Mistletoe had actually planned to invest € 1 million from the start and are now adding the remaining € 760,000 in addition to the € 240,000 they had invested in June.
Spreading all over the world
Trading will be run through Funderbeam Markets Pte. Ltd instead of Funderbeam Markets OÜ, the previous operator. One of the changes will be to lose the pre-emption right, which limited trading activity.
According to Ruusalepp the change will make Funderbeam more attractive to middle-size mature companies. „For example, if an investor wanted to sell Tanker shares, then the investors with existing shares in the company had the first option to buy. The others got their chance later. Now that the pre-emption rights will disappear the trading will be more democratic, flexible and fluid – the deals can be made much quicker,“ said Ruusalepp.
Moving trading to Singapore will be a big change for companies, investors and Funderbeam, Ruusalepp said. Through Singapore, they can bring together investors and companies in Europe and Asia. Their platform will be open to investors and companies around the world.
Alternative stock exchange for growth companies
Funderbeam plans to stay in the growth business market. This means that in Estonia the competition will rather be Nasdaq First North than the main stock exchange market. Prior to developing the stock exchange for growth market, Kaidi Ruusalepp managed the Tallinn Stock Exchange.
The entire business model is structured to encourage cross-border investing and trading without local mediators. This is enabled by Singapore's legal environment, because their long-term ambition is to become the world's leading center of financial technology.
Funderbeam is gradually moving the current trading to the service provider in Singapore and opening up new opportunities for their users. “Automatic deals, market index, modern user functionality with market data - all this is coming soon. We want companies to feel comfortable. The changes are rather small. They focus on making the rules more precise, but not stricter. However, we have to bear in mind that these are still growth companies that we are talking about,” Ruusalepp added.
When starting out in 2016, Funderbeam was referred to as a startup stock exchange, but turned out to became a crowdfunding platform for growth companies in general, including small and medium-sized businesses: in addition to startups, other companies that received funding through the platform include small breweries and LaMuu, an ice cream producer. It was a long way from the stock market, because trading on the secondary market was very limited. With the operating licence from Singapore, this will change and Funderbeam is aiming to become the world's leading investment and trading platform for growth companies.
Through its investment platform, Funderbeam offers small and medium-sized growth companies the opportunity to raise capital. To date, over 50 fast-growth companies have entered the market through Funderbeam platform. Investors have the opportunity to trade on the secondary market, the platform has attracted more than 13,000 investors in more than 128 countries. Established in 2013, the company has offices in Tallinn, London, Copenhagen, Zagreb and Singapore.
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