Ata Plus Co-Founders – Aimi Aizal Nasharuddin, Elain Lockman & Kyri Andreou
Most entrepreneurs often start out with nothing more than just a great idea for business. Outside this passion, they may not really have money to convert their idea into reality. But to grow an idea, from planning to setting up shop, requires money. And it’s equally important to be able to gather the required funds quickly to respond to the needs in the market. This is where most conventional methods to raise funds aren’t effective because they are time-consuming and labour-intensive. And they churn out fewer successes, reject more ideas, and are supported by very few investors.
Seasoned entrepreneurs Elain Lockman, Kyri Andreou, and Aimi Nasharuddin skilled in areas like finances, investment banking, corporate, government, branding, and marketing, fully understood the difficulties of setting up a new business. Passionately believing in entrepreneurship as a force for doing good, they sought a better way to raise funds. It would need to allow any deserving and qualified entrepreneur to reach out to potential investors easily. At the same time, investors from anywhere in the world should be able to invest in promising ideas, at an extremely low amount.
The trio understood the game-changing implications of this idea and after assessing its feasibility, they set it up. Ata Plus Sdn Bhd was born in 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as an equity-style crowdfunding platform online to help small-to-medium-sized enterprises access funds easily. It would allow anyone to invest in promising ideas from businesspersons in an open, safe, and seamless way.
A Smarter and Better Way to Connect Entrepreneurs with Investors
“We are facilitators, bringing together groups with mutual interests. We allow them to transact exchange of value safely, legally, seamlessly, efficiently, and with minimal friction,” Elain Lockman says.
Ata Plus welcomes all kinds of entrepreneurs from anywhere, regardless of industry, size, or stage of development. After a quick screening process, they gains access to approach lots of investors, even some who could be brand ambassadors, promoting their ideas over social media. Overall, the user experience of the platform is simple and seamless. Raising funds comes down to creating a simple pitch deck outlining the essential background information, a term sheet with the offer to investors and a pitch video explaining why people should invest in their idea. Throughout the process, Ata Plus helps the entrepreneur communicate engagingly and effectively.
Similarly, investors aren’t limited to Malaysia alone—its hi-tech platform allows investors from anywhere in the world to come forward and participate. By distributing the possible sources of funds, Ata Plus has created a smart way to mitigate risks. Moreover, the entire exchange takes place online, supported by blockchain technology. So, almost every step becomes paperless wherein cross-checking documentation, information and more, become easy.
“Everything we do is driven by values. Our values are about driving financial inclusion and the democratization of wealth, whether it is by providing funding access to any qualified entrepreneur or by giving the accessibility and opportunity for anyone to invest in promising companies of the future,” Elain captures Ata Plus’s significance.
Supported by Powerful Technology and Competent People
Ata Plus is realized by ‘Cortex’, a blockchain agnostic operating system from Neuroware. It creates a single unified interface to manage user accounts and data, and thus making the platform more transparent, reliable, and efficient. So, with just a few buttons, certain protocols or services may be activated, wallets added, deliver loyalty points and more to enhance the total community offerings.
In addition to the founders, Ata Plus is supported by a young team of inquisitive, adaptable, and creative individuals with varied backgrounds like economics, law, marketing and finance. “What we look for are people with the potential to become ‘T-shaped’, meaning they are specialists in one key area but they get involved in a variety of tasks, from assessing financials to developing marketing campaigns,” Elain provides insights.
Supporting the Growth of Businesses Today and Tomorrow
Ata Plus is Malaysia’s online equity crowdfunding platform focusing on halal businesses—completely different from a typical venture capital company. It is one of the first companies to be registered as a Recognized Market Operator by the Securities Commission Malaysia. Its service is reliable and compliant with all the local as well as international rules.
Through honesty, transparency, and attention-to-detail, Ata Plus has been helping varied businesses achieve funds, grow and succeed over the years. Because it treats entrepreneurs with empathy, Ata Plus is valued today. Furthermore, its ability to tell stories of its customers to help them show their talents and potential better, has been instrumental to everyone’s success.
Looking to the future, Ata Plus has a global expansion plan to steadily make the process of fundraising even better. “We want to continue to add value through better user experience for both entrepreneurs and investors. We want to provide more tools and services that will aid entrepreneurs easily connect with investors.” Elain concludes.
Boilerplate
Ata Plus Sdn Bhd is a blockchain enhanced Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) online platform, matching businesses seeking growth and funding with investors interested in building sustainable world-class companies. As a Registered Recognised Market Operator with the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) since June 2015, Ata Plus actively seeks to leverage on technology tools to facilitate and promote transparency and good governance in investing and fundraising.
Ata Plus aims to:
- Provide an efficient and innovative channel of fundraising to SMEs and start-up businesses
- Offer a pool of quality, high potential and legitimate deal flow to the investor community
- Operate a transparent and professional ECF platform that balances risk management and compliance through swift processes
Website: www.ata-plus.com