Crowdfunding startup CoAssets expands to Hong Kong with an investment in Fintech

Through this partnership, CoAssets will also help grow Piggiebank, a part of Fintech and online platform for investment products

CoAssets, a Singapore-based ASX-listed crowdfunding platform for real-estate and small and medium businesses, has agreed to invest in Fintech Pte Ltd, a Hong Kong-based fintech company.

Fintech Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Brighten Management, also owns Piggiebank, an online platform that provides users with investment products. Piggiebank has raised more than S$8 million (US$5.63 million) over 12 months.

“This partnership is an important step to growing CoAssets beyond our current markets,” said CEO and Co‐founder Getty Goh. “Piggiebank has a good track record and working relationship with some of the Hong Kong top financial institutions (including family offices and a listed company), and we hope to tap on their expertise to curate and source for attractive deals from around the region. This is particularly critical for our business as we start to convert more Chinese users.”

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Since its listing in Australia’s ASX in September last year, CoAssets has been expanding its footprint in the region. The company currently has presence in Singapore, China, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia, and are in the process of applying for its Capital Market Services License (CMSL) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This move is also in line with the recommendations mooted by Singapore’s Committee of the Future Economy (CFE) to deepen and diversify Singapore’s international connections.

“We expect that this investment into Fintech will put us on the right path to grow our revenue in the coming months,” Getty added.

“We believe that this will be a very good collaboration between CoAssets and Fintech. Through this partnership, we are able to bring CoAssets, an established crowdfunding platform, on board to grow Piggiebank to the next level,” said Julian So, Co-founder of Brighten Management.

“We are very impressed by what they did in China, Singapore and Australia, and would like them to
replicate their success for us in the Hong Kong market. By having a credible technology partner like
CoAssets, this will free us up to do what we do best – sourcing for attractive deals. From Fintech and
Brighten’s perspective, we see this as a way for us to modernise a ‘brick‐and‐mortar’ business to make it significantly more scalable,” Julian added.

Both companies are presently conducting due diligence and aim to conclude the investment by April
2017.

Officially launched in Singapore in July 2013, CoAssets currently has more than 55,000 registered users and the amount successfully funded stands at more than S$45 million (US$33 million). In January this year, CoAssets today made a US$145,000 strategic investment in Fujian-based crowdfunding startup Da Xian Bing, for 10 per cent of the company.

Last year, CoAssets appointed Tommy Teo as its new Chief Financial Officer.

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