Baloy, an e-commerce platform made for grocery shopping with a unique Online-to-Offline (O2O)/Consumer-to-Market (C2M) business model, has raised more than RM6.18 million in one of the largest equity crowdfunding (ECF) campaign raises in Malaysia. Since its launch on 2 July 2021 on the Ethis Malaysia platform, the campaign garnered investments from around the world including Singapore, Malaysia, China, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, India, South Africa, Mauritius, France, and the United Kingdom.
Yen Chee Yung, the Co-Founder and CEO of Baloy says, “Our ECF campaign with Ethis Malaysia has successfully raised one of the largest ECF raises in Malaysia, with the participation of not only local but also global investors hailing from close to 20 countries. This is our effort towards capturing FDI for Malaysia in a small but meaningful way. Baloy is indeed pleased to have raised the capital required to grow our business to the next level. The segment of the market that we are targeting, the B40 now the B50, was hardest hit by the pandemic but it remains resilient and requires an innovative approach to ensure that the needs of this group are met.”
“This means a lot to us, and we are very grateful to have investors who are interested in our business model and who are confident of our success and potential. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our new shareholders to the Baloy family. This is an important step in the growth story of the company. At the same time, we would like to thank the team at Ethis for their hard work and dedication that made this round of funding successful,” continues Yen.
Since 2019, Baloy has presented the solution to lower consumer expenses on essential goods especially for B40 households through its unique business model, which is a model from customer to manufacturer online to offline. By combining both C2M and O2O concepts, Baloy effectively differentiates itself in the local retail space by offering the lowest price possible. With current household income statistics, Baloy’s business model offers a solution to lowering food-based inflation, by improving consumers’ purchasing power, and by assisting small traders and SMEs to empower them towards recovery from the long-tail economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The fact that the Ethis platform was able to facilitate shariah-compliant retail investors from close to 20 different countries shows that we have matured as a conduit for investment to flow into Malaysia. We hope that this global approach to raising the much-needed capital for Malaysian companies is utilised as the primary means of funding innovative business ideas for local entrepreneurs and SMEs looking to expand as the economy starts to grow post-pandemic. This is also aligned with the aspiration of 12th Malaysia plan to support MSMEs as well as entrepreneurs via fintech and crowdfunding capabilities.” says Ethis Malaysia Chief Executive Officer, Wan Mohd Dazriq Wan Zulkiflee.
“The halal retail and food distribution remain an important component of the shariah-compliant economy that will see considerable growth post-pandemic as consumers look to spend as the economy recovers. Ethis will continue to make available sustainable and innovative opportunities to grow value for institutional and retail investors alike; especially with investments that bring social benefit such as Baloy’s, which goes hand in hand with Ethis’ circulate good ambition in the real economy.”
