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WADIAA is a crowdfunding platform regulated by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Oman. WADIAA enables startups and SMEs raise funds from the general public, angel investors as well as established private equity and VC funds who are willing to take on the risk of investing in Startups.
The platform makes it easy and convenient for Investors to find promising startups and invest.
WADIAA makes it easer for the fundraising companies to manage the fundraising process.
On WADIAA, anyone can invest in private businesses that offer shares of stock, debt and revenue share securities.
You as an Entrepreneur, are no longer constrained to sources of capital such as private equity or venture capital firms, to fund your business. Founders can find like-minded Investors and visionaries who share your passion and are willing to take a chance on you and your business.
Any legitimate, registered business (both local and international) that has a clear business plan, not dealing in restricted activities as per Oman’s laws and whose securities are not traded in any securities market may raise funds on WADIAA.
If your business was formed and registered less than 12 months ago, you are restricted by regulation to fundraise up to USD 260,000. You can raise more than USD 260,000, if your business was registered more than 12 months ago.
The cost of launching a Crowdfunding Campaign on WADIAA varies based on the nature and size of your business. In general, it costs between USD 2,600 and USD 10,000 for the financial review and due-diligence required to launch a fundraising campaign.
If you are looking to raise more than USD 260,000, you will need a full financial audit, which you as the fundraiser will have to bear in addition.
We offer promotional offers for some businesses from time to time. Please contact us to see if your business qualifies for our promotional offers.
On average it takes about six (6) weeks to launch a fundraising campaign. However, based on the readiness and responsiviness of the fundraiser, this can be completed sooner.
All businesses must apply to fundraise on the WADIAA Platform, under Raise Funds section. You must register a fundraiser account, fill in the requested details in the form and upload a copy of your Company Registration Certificate. If you have a ready draft of your fundraising pitch deck, please upload the Pitch Deck too. Once you Submit your request to fundraise, your request will be pre-screened.
WADIAA is selective on the type of businesses permissible for fundraising on the Platform. The pre-screening is conducted to check if your business fits our selection criteria. If your business meets our selection criteria, we will approve the pre-screening and will then undergo our due-diligence process.
The due-diligence process is conducted to understand the Fundraiser’s business better and capture information of shareholders, so that the regulatory requirements can be met.
The due-diligence includes a Know Your Business (KYB) check of the business and Know Your Customer (KYC) check of the shareholders and senior management of the business to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements.
The business due-diligence also includes information gathering to assess risk of your business and also the suitability to host your fundraising campaign on the WADIAA Platform, based on the needs of Investors on the Platform.
The WADIAA Platform is regulated by the Crowdfunding regulations issued by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) of Oman.
The regulations do not restrict businesses located outside of Oman from raising funds on Wadiaa. However, there are restrictions that are in place based on international sanctions that WADIAA honors and upholds.
Wadiaa can certainly help your business raise funds if the business is not based in a country currently on international sanctions list, subject to your business successfully clearing our Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks.
The Founders will be responsible to check if there are restrictions (if any) on crowdfunding imposed on businesses in the jurisdiction of registration of the fundraising company and resulting tax implications (if any).
It is difficult to predict which campaigns will be successful at crowdfunding. In general, the investors on the Wadiaa Platform each have their respective areas of interest. But we also do have a wide range of investors.
In general, companies that are further along the development process, and/ or have the product or service ready to market, and/ or companies that have successfully raised funds before, usually tend to invoke better investor confidence and tend to have better success. The country and place of business also tends to be a contributing factor to success.
The Founding Team’s experience and credentials as well as the traction that the company has achieved and impact the product or service can deliver also seems to be a contributing success factor.
The most successful fundraisers ensure that they have a strong online presence and leverage all their social media channels effectively. A strong community and engagement online is crucial for success. The companies that have already worked to create a strong brand, brand identity and brand recall do very well.
Furthermore, Fundraisers must have a health marketing budget for ads and a sound marketing plan to create a hype to drive potential investors to the campaign page.
The above recommendations are based on some of the trends. We have also witnessed companies that have successfully raised without following the above suggestions.
1) Prepare a Fundraising Pitch – Build a clear and compelling story as to why Investors must invest in your business, with images and designs for the campaign page.
2) Set your Investment Terms – Identify your business valuation. Clarify how much of what type of security you are offering for sale.
3) Provide Legal Documents for Reference – Company Registration Certificate, Articles of Incorporation, Authorisation Letters, Board Resolutions to approve your fundraise, etc.
4) Provide Approved/Audited Financials – Make available the requisite financial information audited by an firm registered with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) OR Shareholder/ Board approved financials, if the company is less than 1 year old.
The Founders decide which securities you wish to offer to investors as well as the terms of the offering. Wadiaa’ s compliance team will then review your proposed offering terms, as well as all the supporting documentation, before the same is finalized and published.
Wadiaa helps Founders with the Fundraising process as follows:
1) We provide a Fundraising Specialist to work with you to plan and manage the fundraise as well as create a marketing strategy.
2) We help develop a fundraising plan based on your business needs and provide pointers on how to go about the fundraising.
3) We review the campaign content for suitability for Wadiaa’s investors.
4) We make the offering available to Wadiaa’s investors across the world.
5) We send promotional offers to all our registered users.
6) We help you find lead investors if required.
7) We provide a communication platform to clarify potential investor questions
8) You should be able to raise a majority of your funding from among Wadiaa’s investor community.
9) We do a preliminary Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) for your Individual and Institutional investors repsectively.
10) We provide a payment gateway for receiving investments.
11) We facilitate the investment process; and
12) We also help in the set up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for your investors.
For Fundraising, you will need to disclose key information about your company and the offering. Key information would include the following:
a) Background on the founders
b) Company’s business model
c) Price of shares (Valuation)
d) Target (Goal) amount as well as Minimum amount (if any) to be raised
e) Use of funds (Fundraising proceeds)
f) Audited financial information about the company
g) Investment Terms and Conditions
h) Risks associated with the investment opportunity.
These information will need to be made available to the public for reference.
On Wadiaa, we recommend campaigns of 2 to 3 months duration. We find that shorter campaigns than 2 months tends to not be enough time to gain widespread awareness and enquiry. Longer campaigns than 3 months also tend to not imply a sense of urgency. However, for large raise amounts, longer campaigns can be useful with the use of rolling close.
Fundraisers on Wadiaa have the option of collecting funds raised as it comes in by opting for a Rolling Close.
Once a fundraiser raises more than the Minimum Raise Amount agreed with Wadiaa then, once the campaign surpasses 120% of the Minimum Raise Amount, the Fundraiser can opt for rolling closes equivalent to the Minimum Raise Amount.
The Minimum Raise Amount, minus Wadiaa’s success fee for that amount shall be dispersed 3 weeks from the request or after 5 days after the Campaign end, whichever comes earlier. You can receive funds raised as your campaign continues to accept new investments.
We recommend that companies set a minimum fundraising goal equivalent to 10% of their targeted campaign amount or a minimum of USD 10,000. By doing so, even if you end up raising less than your Target Raise Amount, you still get to collect all the amount raised during the campaign duration, as long as your campaign has raised more than USD 10,000 or 10% of the Target Amount.
After your fundraising campaign ends, Star Engine will inform Capital Markets Authority (CMA) of a successful fundraise and disclose the amount raised during your campaign.
We then email the final set of investors with their countersigned subscription agreement, which will serve as their proof of purchase.
Fundraisers will then be allowed to communicate directly with your investors, field questions and comments, and post updates to your investor community. Subsequent responsibility of engaging the investors and regularly communicating with them shall be the responsibility of the Fundraiser.
After a successful raise, having many investors on the cap table can at times be challenging, but manageable for some.
For large number of new investor base, we recommend the set up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the new investors to be housed under and the SPV will be led and managed by a lead investor, who shall represent the SPV on the Fundraiser cap table.