Paramount completes fintech investment into Fundaztic, a P2P platform in Malaysia & Singapore

PETALING JAYA, 13 August 2021: Paramount Corporation Berhad (Paramount) announced today that it has completed its first fintech investment with a 30% equity interest in Omegaxis Sdn Bhd (Omegaxis), the holding company of Peoplender Sdn Bhd (Peoplender) that operates the Fundaztic peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platform. Fundaztic has presence in Malaysia and Singapore.

On 15 April 2021, Paramount’s wholly-owned subsidiary Magna Intelligent Sdn Bhd (MISB) signed a conditional share subscription agreement with P2P Venture Sdn Bhd and Omegaxis for a 30% equity interest in Omegaxis at a total cash consideration of RM13.7 million.

Omegaxis has a 63.5% equity stake in Peoplender, a Recognised Market Operator of P2P financing platform Fundaztic. Launched in 2017, Fundaztic serves over 24,000 members, providing financing to over 2,000 start-ups and micro to small and medium enterprises (MSME), and continues to command a 50% market share in terms of unique issuers served in the Malaysian P2P industry. Fundaztic is the first and only P2P platform in Malaysia to introduce a secondary market and the first to offer capital protection for investors. As of today, Fundaztic is one of only eleven Recognised Market Operators for P2P platforms licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia.

In July 2021, Fundaztic SG Pte Ltd (also a subsidiary of Peoplender) launched Fundaztic SG, the seventh P2P financing platform in Singapore after receiving approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore earlier in the year.

As the Fundaztic business model is scalable, Omegaxis would be able to expand regionally in the future. Paramount believes there is tremendous room for growth for the P2P financing industry both in terms of demand for SME financing as well as investors seeking higher returns in a low interest rate environment.

Paramount’s investment in Omegaxis is in line with its 5-year (2020-2024) strategic plan to identify new sources of earnings, particularly those in the digital space, to future proof the group for long term sustainability. Apart from this investment, Paramount had on 30 June 2021 announced that it has applied to Bank Negara Malaysia for a digital banking licence as the lead applicant of a consortium.