The company also highlights the role played by its UOB partnership in this milestone

2016-08-18
Global equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd announced today that it was awarded a full Capital Market Services (CMS) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) at the end of July, enabling the platform to market its equity crowdfunding platform in the country.

“Our latest approval and licence in Singapore is further validation of OurCrowd’s global footprint and it’s exciting to see immediate and impactful results, thanks to our partners at UOB and the Sassoon Investment Corporation (SIC). Singapore-based investors will now have access to our portfolio of world-class startups and tap their growth potential,” said Denes Ban, OurCrowd Partner and Managing Director, Asia, in a press statement.

The company stressed the role UOB plays in supporting its expansion plan to Singapore, which started with a US$10 million investment in OurCrowd in March.

UOB also took the opportunity to highlight its commitment to support startup growth into sustainable businesses by training its commercial bankers to provide clients with the most up-to-date information on alternative funding channels beyond traditional financing.

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According to Janet Young, Head of Group Channels and Digitalization, UOB, in the last six months the bank have trained more than 100 commercial bankers to “identify and understand” the available types of financing in which startups can qualify.

Other initiatives that UOB has in store for startups include its accelerator programme named The FinLab. Startups participating in the programme showcased their works at the recent Echelon Asia Summit 2016 in June.

OurCrowd itself was launched in 2013, and it claimed to have raised over US$250 million for investment in almost 100 companies. Furthermore, eight of its portfolio companies were either acquired by a multinational or listed publicly.

What sets OurCrowd apart is that it also invests its own capital alongside the crowd investors in each deal. It also provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies by assigning industry experts as mentors.

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