Southeast Asia's first publicly-listed crowdfunding site CoAssets has completed its first Australian small-to-medium enterprise crowdfunding project, with engineering and construction consultancy Stapleton International raising $105,000 from online investors in two days. 
The Singapore-founded company, which is also listed on Australia's smaller index, the National Stock Exchange, has spoken about its plans to crowdfund property deals, but has a broad focus on small to medium-sized business that need to drum up funding.
Requiring alternative funding to service a major oil and gas project, Stapleton found it faster to raise it online than to go through traditional banks.
"Stapleton struggled to get the money they needed ... traditional financiers got cumbersome," CoAssets chief executive Getty Goh said.
"We add value to small-medium businesses because market conditions have become more challenging for them. Crowdfunding is key."
Mr Goh said CoAssets planned to focus on raising for SMEs because it had identified a funding gap for these sized companies.
"$100,000 to $2 million is too big for friends and family and too small for institutional lenders. So crowdfunding allows them to use technology to get a better outcome," Mr Goh said.
With offices around the world, CoAssets' crowdfunding model gives SMEs a chance to raise money outside Australia.
CoAssets raised $41 billion in the past two years and is a corporate authorised representative of a Melbourne company which holds an Australian financial services licence. It is backed by key advisors Expara and Ventures and Jeffrey Chi, chairman of the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association.