Green Lagoon aims to raise US$3.6mil, via ECF in Malaysia

• Believed to be largest amount to be sought so far via ECF
• Funding aligned with growth strategy for listing on Bursa Malaysia in 2023

The increase in the fundraising cap for companies in Malaysia on equity crowdfunding (ECF) platforms from US$2.39 million to US$4.78 million (RM10 million to RM20 million), as announced in Nov 2021 by Securities Commissions of Malaysia (SC) in the revised Guidelines on Recognized Market has been well greeted by the ECF ecosystem.

The increase supports a key goal of the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021 - 2025) which is to stimulate and propel the growth of strategic and high impact industries such as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

MSMEs such as Green Lagoon Technology have started taking advantage of the higher cap. Green Lagoon  has partnered with Leet Capital to raise RM15 million via ECF, its second time to raise funding via ECF. In 2016 it had raised RM800,00 via CrowdPlus.Asia.

[Ed: Para updated with additional information.]

[RM1 = US$0.239]

“We are excited and look forward to giving the opportunity for investors to invest into industry leaders like Green Lagoon. Their proven track record and aspirations of going for an IPO in 2023 is a deal we know the retail investors would love,” Bikesh Lakhmichand, the CEO of Leet Capital said.

Green Lagoon is a specialist in providing turnkey solutions for palm oil millers to manage biogas emitted from their mills. The biogas released are converted to renewable energy either for internal consumption or to be monetised to the national grid under the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) program.

Wilson Ang, the Chief Financial Officer of Green Lagoon said “We were the first biogas company to raise funds via an ECF platform and today, we aspire to achieve the highest amount of funds ever raised, targeting at up to RM15 million. The funds raised will be used to enlarge our biogas asset footprint from 10 to 16 biogas plants, and for business diversification purposes into other kinds of agricultural waste, including livestock manure and biomass waste. This is to align our growth strategy towards listing on Bursa Malaysia in 2023 in support of Malaysia’s sustainability agenda.”

Since 2010, Green Lagoon has completed 39 projects valued at RM133 million, and currently have 24 ongoing projects that are valued at RM131 million. Their assets consist of seven power plants in 2021, and will be expanding to 10 by the end of 2022, totalling 15.35MW/hr export capacity.

Parties keen to be an investor in Green Lagoon can visit https://leet.capital/company/green-lagoon-technology-sdn-bhd to find out more. 

The SC, in its Annual Report 2020 noted that, total capital raised via ECF grew 457% to RM127.72 million from RM22.92 million in 2019. Larger fundraising amounts were also observed, with 84% of campaigns raising more than RM500,000. In fact, campaigns raising Series A and onwards funding, grew 50% in 2020, a testament to the growing interest of MSMEs to utilise ECF as a viable alternative fundraising method.