Crowdfunding. Yay or Nay?
Hey guys,
In my first blogpost, I am going to share my experience with crowdfunding with you!
For those who aren’t familiar with the concept,
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and of alternative finance. In 2015, it was estimated that worldwide over US$34 billion was raised this way.
I have personally invested through MoolahSense , a “Leading P2P lending platform” in Singapore. In Nov 2015, I invested a sum of money in a company called Jova Marine Services that had a healthy balance sheet, growing P&L statements and most importantly, promised 20%p.a. return in a year via monthly repayments. ( Sounds amazing right?) .
But no.
In the initial period, Jova made good on it’s loan, communicated with investors and was punctual with the repayment schedule and yeah, investors were smiling and everyone was havin’ a jolly good time! Then boom, in the last few months of the schedule, Jova began to delay it’s repayments and eventually the payments stopped coming along with the replies.
Numerous inquiries have been made with MoolahSense has also gone unanswered. Apparently a senior management figure that handled the administration has left the company and the admin dept is in shambles.
However, despite the seemly insurmountable task of replying it’s investors. MoolahSense has been able to actively list new loans. (Priorities ,right?)
Meanwhile, I am coming to terms with the loss of my investment until the day Jova miraculously pays off it’s debt. It was a risk I took and it’s all part of the journey where bumps are inevitable I guess.
Personally, I would say that while the prospects of crowdfunding is as tempting as a McSpicy, it is in fact a vegeterian char siew bao. It is a Nay for me given the amount of uncertainties in the investment. Did I mention? The figures of the financial data shown on the platforms may or may not be verified and you have to look closely and take it with a pinch of salt if it is not .
Hopefully my two cents on crowdfunding is able to aid you in making a more informed decision!
For Honour And Glory,
CDOInvestor
Crowdfunding is an unregulated investment activities in Singapore, and hence the risk of losing your entire principal is pretty high.
ReplyDeleteI did some researches before and decided not to invest in MoolahSense (though their marketing team is very aggresive and call me relentlessly).Instead I chose Capital-Match who deals with invoice crowdfunding, It is a more secured crowdfund method, in my opinion, and the tenure is usually <3 months, this again provides more flexibility in deploying funds.
All in all, crowdfund is still a very risky investment for me so I limit my investment to 2k-ish now (probably will increase to 5k in the near future). It is a tool to speculate higher returns than my other portfolio.
My 2 cents :)