Rob Chong, Co-Founder, Radical Finance

Topic Abstract

In this talk, I will look into multiple ways of fund-raising, this includes ICO, STO, crowdfunding platforms like kickstarter, Indigogo and traditional way of raising capital through public listing, IPO.

From 2017, we have seen ICO way of crowdfunding have been exploited by numerous projects, including exit scams, simple projects with inflated funds raised, projects failed or becoming too complacent after huge amount of funds raised, project teams that see ICO as free money from the public with no accountability and the list goes on. Will ICO be replaced by STO for crowdfunding in token forms of the sake of regulations and giving “sense of security” investors?

We are going to compare the differences of the fund raising methods, possible ways of restructuring the ways of raising capitals for promising startups, with regards to regulation of course!

From my research data, ICO brings about increase in number of successful startups and innovations, although percentage is still low at below 10%. We should look at how to correctly channel the funds to the more legitimate projects in a more prudence way, eg. project valuation underwritten by a 3rd party, limiting the amount of capital raised, funds payout in tranches.

To conclude, we should not limit innovations with too much regulations but at the same time, put in place measures for better due diligence.