Four years after the SC wrote the rules, a Malaysian company has completed a public token raise under them.
BidNow, a local auction platform, has closed Malaysia's first Token Crowdfunding (TCF) campaign on pitchIN, raising the full RM10 million target from 469 investors in roughly eight weeks after passing its RM5 million minimum. The campaign, launched in mid-July, is the country's first public token offering under the SC's IEO guidelines.
The token
BidNow's $BID is a utility token used for loyalty rewards, membership, NFT marketplace transactions and fee discounts on its platform — a deliberately practical first test of the framework, tied to a working consumer business.
Why this is a landmark
pitchIN proved Malaysian retail investors would fund startups through regulated equity crowdfunding; today it proved the same for tokens. CEO Sam Shafie and Head of TCF Nicholas Chong have flagged two to three further token deals in the pipeline pending regulatory review — and pitchIN's October partnership with newly licensed exchange Hata points at the endgame: primary raises that graduate to secondary trading on a regulated DAX.
Fundraising with tokens in Malaysia is no longer theoretical. It has a completed deal, a cap table of 469 believers, and a pipeline.
References
- Fintech News Malaysia — "pitchIN launches inaugural RM10 million token crowdfunding deal with BidNow" (15 Jul 2024)
- Fintech News Malaysia — "Malaysia's first token crowdfunding completed" (22 Aug 2024)
- Digital News Asia — "BidNow raises US$2.2 million in Malaysia's first token crowdfunding campaign" (2024)