FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

SMEs can soon raise capital from crowd-funding portals

SMEs can  soon raise capital from crowd-funding portals

SMALL and medium-sized enterprises, including start-ups, will soon be able to tap crowd-funding portals more easily to raise capital under revised rules drafted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Assistant secretary-general Paralee Sukonthaman said in a group interview that the crowd-funding portals must get approval from the SEC. 
They have the responsibility to find companies with potential for growth and also disclose the details of the issuer, such as its business potential and business risk, to investors for consideration.
Issuers can raise up to Bt20 million from crowd-funding investors for the first year. Investors can spend up to Bt50,000 per crowd-funding call and Bt500,000 per year.
“We limited the investment in equity crowd funding for retail investors because we want to save them from risk.
“Normally about 20 per cent of SMEs and 30 per cent of start-ups succeed in doing business, so we want investors to manage their business risk when they make decisions to invest,” she said.
However, there is no cap to raising capital from non-retail investors because professional investors have enough knowledge to limit their business risk by themselves.
Crowd-funding rules went into effect last May, but the SEC has drafted some revisions to make them more flexible. The public-hearing process for these changes ends on February 12. 
However, five firms have already shown interest in raising money through crowd funding, and are going ahead with the process. They include an information-technology business and SMEs that produce and distribute agricultural products.
 
nationthailand