Understanding Investors Preferences Towards Equity Crowdfunding for SMEs In Malaysia

The main objective of this study is to investigate the investors’ perspective related to equity crowdfunding as a source of financing for SMEs in Malaysia. The study uses survey-based questionnaire. A total of 417 investors participate in this survey. The data is analyzed using descriptive statistics including graphical illustration and cross-tabulation analysis. The findings show that investors participate in equity crowdfunding to obtain a good return on investment and to support new businesses or SMEs. The investors prefer to invest in growth stage businesses or projects and they prefer dividend payments as the best way to benefit from investing in equity crowdfunding. Nonetheless, concerns are expressed on how effective the regulations are in dealing with fraudulent projects. The originality of this study stems from being amongst the first to investigate equity crowdfunding from an investor perspective and indeed the first in Malaysian SMEs context.