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The Sultanate of Oman’s nascent crowdfunding industry, currently featuring a pair of platform operators, will be opened up to further competition with the Capital Market Authority (CMA) planning to licence more players in the near future, according to a high-level official.
Mohammed bin Said al Abri, Vice President – Capital Markets, said international interest in Oman’s budding crowdfunding market has been strong, in part due to the flexible, broad and comprehensive scope of the regulatory framework embraced by the Omani regulator.
“The crowdfunding regulatory framework, which has been established in the Sultanate of Oman, is the first of its kind in the GCC region to allow global cross-border investments, which most countries do not (enable),” said Al Abri. “Since (the issuance of the regulations in November 2021), the CMA has attracted overwhelming interest from both international and local crowdfunding and fintech players, particularly as the new regulations have been made very facilitative and allow cross border investments,” he stated.
The official made the comments when delivering the keynote at last week’s formal launch of EthisX – the first global Islamic crowdfunding platform to operate in the Sultanate of Oman.
Stressing the importance of crowdfunding services in opening up new fundraising opportunities for small businesses and start-ups, as well to the broader goal of strengthening financial inclusion, Al Abri said a further number of new operators will be licensed going forward.
“The CMA is expecting to have a few more crowdfunding platform operators -- both conventional and Islamic -- to be established and licensed in the Sultanate of Oman in the near future,” the official stated.
“By licensing crowdfunding platform operators, the CMA seeks to provide new financing platforms for companies, including SMEs, to raise finance and funding directly from global and local investors, without the need to go through financial institution or intermediaries. This initiative also enhances financial inclusion by providing easier access to finance to all segments of society,” he added.
EthisX is the first-of-its-kind global cross-border Ethical Private Capital Marketplace able to offer direct shariah-compliant investments into SME companies, including startups and special purpose vehicle (SPV) projects from the Sultanate of Oman and across the globe via its equity crowdfunding platform. Through EthisX, SME companies can also receive short-term financing for their businesses directly from global and local investors via their Peer-To Peer (P2P) financing crowdfunding platform.
More recently, the regulator issued a licence to Dubai-based Beehive Technologies to operate a crowdfunding platform for the delivery of Peer to Peer (P2P) financing services – the second such player to enter the Sultanate of Oman’s burgeoning crowdfunding space.
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