Skolafund crowdfunds scholarships to low-income students in Malaysia, gets acquired

Skolafund, an impact enterprise that crowdfunds scholarships to university students in need, has been wholly acquired by one of Asia’s leading donation crowdfunding platforms, as per a statement.

The details of the deal or the name of the acquirer were not disclosed.

When contacted, Skolafund’s Co-founder and CEO Tengku Syamil, said: “Unfortunately, these details cannot be disclosed due to an agreement with the acquirer.”

Post-deal, the Skolafund platform will be merged into the acquirer’s regional platform.

“With this significant development, we are on a sounder footing to continue serving the disadvantaged in our communities, whether through aid on education or other ways — like medical and humanitarian assistance. This also means we can reach more people and be more accessible across Southeast Asia,” he said.

Skolafund is a digital platform that provides matchmaking and mediation services to those who want to help fund tertiary education for students from low to middle-income families. The platform enables students to request for funds, filtered based on need, to campaign for funding. Skolafund filters and verifies the application, and provides transparency of financial transactions and the students’ progress reports to the sponsors.

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To date, Skolafund has crowdsourced scholarships to the tune of RM1.6 million, benefitting 592 students from less-privileged backgrounds. It has acquired a total of over 29,000 registered donors with 11,119 of them actively contributing in a campaign.

In total, 350 campaigns were launched, and 189 of them were 100 per cent funded.

In May, Skolafund, along with a partner, launched Kitafund to help low-income individuals pay for medical services, as well as fund other humanitarian efforts, including animal aid. In total, the fund raised RM1.2 million from 42,233 donations, benefiting 155 individuals in need.

Skolafund itself had raised funding on the Ata Plus Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) platform in February 2017.

Elain Lockman, Co-founder and Director of Ata Plus, said. “It is Malaysia’s first exit story in ECF, and this augurs well for the future of this asset class. It also dispels the myth that investing in Impact Enterprises does not give a financial return.”

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