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Bambucorn conducts both equity and financing - based crowdfunding. As of this date, Bambucorn has not conducted any equity (including property) fundraises on its platform. However, the average failure rate for private high-growth companies is approximately 90% (Source: Small Business Administration). We shall update this section of the platform once we successfully close equity offerings on the platform. In respect of financing-based offerings, Bambucorn has conducted 9 financing - based offerings on its platform as of this date. The failure rate for borrowers on Bambucorn is 0% as of this date.
The answer to both the questions is no, there is no limit. However, we would ask you to keep in mind that investments into issuers on the platform are speculative and carry high risk. Accordingly, please invest amounts that you can afford to lose without any undue hardship.
At the time of joining the platform, you wouldn’t be charged any fees. You may be charged a fee depending on the offering. Please read the offering related documents to understand what you may be charged.
If you’ve been classified as a Retail Customer, you will be able to cancel an investment up to 5 working days from the date of the commitment. You may withdraw your investment without any penalty and without giving a reason. However, you will be required to bear any transaction related and/or currency exchange charges in such cases. Non-retail customers cannot cancel a commitment once made on the platform, so please do invest wisely!
For all the rights that you would receive once you invest in an offering, please read the offering-related documents carefully. The platform permits issuers to issue either ordinary shares or preferred shares.
The minimum subscription amount has been set at 80% of the target level for all offerings on the platform. This means that if the issuer fails to raise at least 80% of the target amount, all subscription monies received in respect of the offering shall be returned to investors less transaction charges and currency exchange costs (if applicable).
Oversubscriptions may be allowed by the platform at its discretion on a case-by-case basis. Investors are encouraged to read the offering documents carefully to understand whether over subscriptions are permitted for specific offerings.
All material changes in an issuer’s circumstance shall be listed in the section titled “Material changes to Issuers” under the “What’s New?” section. In the event Bambucorn has material concerns regarding the issuer, or if we become aware of any information that indicates the issuer’s offer is misleading, fraudulent and/or deceptive, we shall withdraw the offer on the platform. In such an event, we shall refund all subscription monies sent with respect to the offering less transaction charges and currency exchange fees (if any). For avoidance of doubt, should any material concerns arise after an offering has been completed, Bambucorn is not obligated to refund subscription monies to investors.
Please note that Bambucorn Bahrain WLL and any of its affiliates do not assume any liability on behalf of the issuer. In the event of the failure of an issuer, please contact the issuer directly. Please refer to the Investment Subscription Agreement (ISA) signed with issuer in question.
Whilst there is no facility to currently exit an investment made in a startup on the Bambucorn platform, Bambucorn is in the process of developing an exit facility for such investments. Stay tuned for more updates!
For property investments, the expected holding period shall be specified in the offering-specific documents. At the end of the holding period, subject to majority of votes of the shareholders of the SPV, the administrator of the SPV (a representative of Bambucorn in most cases) shall explore avenues for the sale of the property(ies).
Bambucorn shall disclose all its existing conflicts of interest within the Offering Statement for an offering. The respective Offering Statements can be found within the deal-room.
In most cases, investors in an offering shall be issued shares of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which in turn will hold shares of the issuer or the property that is being sold on the platform. Bambucorn, in its capacity as the administrator of the SPV shall strive to ensure that the issuer meets its obligations following the closing of an offering on the platform. In cases where Bambucorn is not the administrator of the SPV or if there is no SPV used in the offering, please read the offering documents carefully to understand Bambucorn’s role post the offering.
As a crowdfunding platform, regulated by the CBB, issuers on Bambucorn’s platform are subject to the following limits:
Equity-based crowdfunding issuers (entities not engaged in real estate projects) can raise less than or equal to BD 250,000 (approximately USD 660,000) within a 12-month period.
Real-estate crowdfunding issuers can raise less than or equal to BD 500,000 (approximately USD 1.32 mn) within a 12-month period.
Yes, you would be issuing shares against the funds that you raise on the platform. The valuation of your company will be decided mutually between yourself and the platform prior to listing your campaign on the platform.
Currently startups are permitted to raise up to USD 660K in a calendar year. Companies engaged in real estate projects are permitted to raise up USD 1.32 mn in a calendar year.
As part of the application process you are asked to include desired terms of your offering. Our internal team will review your application and provide their inputs (by accepting or proposing different terms of the issue).
Whilst the exact fee that you shall be charged shall vary based on circumstances, Bambucorn shall charge a success fee if your offering closes successfully. The success fee may be a combination of a cash and an equity fee and shall be a percentage of funds raised through the platform. You will also be asked to bear any legal fees that we may incur.
This length of time the offering will be open will be different for each offering. However, we expect that offerings will be open for investment a period between 10 and 90 calendar days.
Yes, your cap table would have to include the names of all investors who have invested through Bambucorn. Alternatively, if you are reticent to include the names of all shareholders on your cap table, you can use an SPV structure, whereby the funds shall be raised at the SPV level (i.e., the names of all investors shall appear on the SPV’s cap table) and the name of the SPV shall be included on your cap table.
Bambucorn believes in the process democratizing access to venture capital. Hence, the platform is open to all kinds of all investors. All you have to go through our KYC process and once approved, you shall be able to invest in any offering listed on the platform. Please note that in line with the regulations of the CBB, we are only able to onboard residents of GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) via the digital onboarding process on the platform. Also, please note that we shall accept the following persons as investors in our offerings; (a) Shareholders that hold 20% or more of share capital or voting rights of Bambucorn (b) Managers and employees of Bambucorn and (c) Any natural or legal persons linked to the persons referring to in (a) and/or (b). That persons referred to under a, b and cshall not enjoy any preferrential treatment or privileged access to information.
As a regulated crowdfunding platform operator, we are subject to the Client Money rules within the CBB Rulebook. Essentially, a Client Money Account is a separate account to collect all the subscription monies raised via the platform. The money held in this account is kept separately from our own and is not subject to any lien or other restrictions. Bambucorn’s Client Money Account is held with a licensed retail bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain
Yes, as a regulated entity, we are required to have processes regarding complaint and dispute resolutions. You can refer to the details of our complaints handling procedure by accessing the link in the footer below.
These have been detailed in the Client Agreement that you will be required to execute prior to becoming a Client of Bambucorn Bahrain BSC (Closed).
As part of our due diligence process, we will require the following documents for businesses looking to raise funds:
At Bambucorn, we are all about ensuring transparency. Following the completion of your offering, you will be required to prepare periodic progress reports which we will disseminate to the investors of your offering on our platform.
Furthermore, by virtue of your investors being shareholders of your company, you will be legally obliged to provide them with notices of matters that require their approval as per your company’s organizational documents. We will facilitate some of this on our platform itself.
Investing in equity is buying a share or a percentage of a company in the hope that its value will appreciate over time. Crowdfunding is the online process of raising funds from the crowd at large to fill large funding gaps. You can learn more about equity crowdfunding by visiting our “Blogs” page.
As a platform regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain (“CBB”), we are required to review every prospect before listing it on the platform. Apart from conducting the diligence mandated by the CBB that includes conducting background checks and verifying the accuracy of the equity crowdfunding offer statement, for equity crowdfunding offers Bambucorn considers other key parameters as part of its curation, which, inter alia, includes:
Problem being addressed
If the solution is addressing the current problem?
Product/ Service Overview
Serviceable Market size
Competition dynamics
Team
Intellectual Property Rights
Historical Financials
Financial Projections
Similarly, for real estate crowdfunding offers, the key parameters that Bambucorn considers include:
Expected Gross yield
Expected Net Yield
The expiry date of the current lease contract and if a new tenant can be found quickly and cost-effectively
The current macroeconomic environment
The seller
Historical transactions associated with the property(ies) being offered
Similarly for financing crowdfunding offers, Bambucorn shall consider the following factors:
Anticipated interest/profit payments
Credit worthiness of the borrower
Robustness of the borrower's business model
Fairness in pricing
The current interest rate environment
Other factors
We also work with the issuer to review its terms sheet and propose changes to keep investors engaged in the proposal.
Please refer to the risk disclosure listed on the home page of the platform.
Investing on Bambucorn is pretty simple! All that is required of you is to go through the Account Setup Gate! Within the Account Setup Gate, you will be required to provide information about yourself and upload the necessary documents.
Once you’re done with this process you shall be able to browse, invest and also access a chat room for each offering listed on the platform!
Financing based crowdfunding involves lending to a borrower who promises a fixed return and a capital repayment at the end of the agreed tenure. The purpose of the financing is to provide operational funds to the borrowing entity, which more often than not will already be earning revenue from which it would pay a fixed return.
Investing in property is buying a share or a percentage of a property for both a fixed return and a capital appreciation. Property crowdfunding is usually carried out through a special purpose vehicle which will own the property and the investors in the special purpose vehicle shall enjoy an indirect fractional ownership in the property as well as the economic interest.
As one of the leading regulated equity crowdfunding platform by the Central Bank of Bahrain (“CBB”), Bambucorn will allow you to raise funds from the public at large. This will not only help you create a more engaged customer base, but also create more awareness for your company and your products.
Issuers on the platform can either be startups or real estate properties located in any jurisdiction. In startups we generally prefer scalable revenue-generating startups within the technology space. You can apply by logging onto our portal as Issuer and a member of our team shall get in touch with you once you submit the initial questionnaire.
Founders are encouraged to apply via our application portal. If we believe your startup is what investors are looking for a member of our team will contact you.
As a founder, we understand that fundraising is a tedious process for startups. By presenting your offering on Bambucorn, investors will be able to invest in your offering at their own convenience, while you are the able to focus all your efforts on managing your company.
Once the offering closes, a decision on the status of the offering (success/ fail) is made based on the aggregate amount of funds committed to the offering. If the offering closes successfully all money net of fees will be transferred to your bank account. For equity crowdfunding offerings, you will be required to issue shares either to the subscribers of your offering or to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) of which the subscribers shall be shareholders. For real estate crowdfunding offerings, you will be required to effect the transfer of the title deed to the entity (based on the terms of the offering) in whose name the property shall be registered Bambucorn will provide a capitalization table management solution for you to monitor the identity of the shareholders of your company. This cap table will be updated in real-time.
Many a times investors put their money into products/companies without understanding company’s technological products/services. On Bambucorn, the expert will perform this function and thus guide investors during the decision-making process. Experts will satisfy this task by answering any questions that investors may have. Please note that experts are not permitted to provide advice to any potential investors, their responses shall be limited to factual responses.
Based on our estimates, experts should spend no more than 20 hours per campaign. An expert may be advising two or more campaigns simultaneously.
The expert will be a paid a fixed fee for each offering for which they are the designated expert. A fixed fee would ensure that that there is no conflict of interest when they expert provides responses to potential investors.
Since Bambucorn is a sector agnostic crowdfunding platform, we are looking for experts in all fields. If you are interested in becoming an expert, please click here to apply. A member of our team shall reach out to you following the receipt of your application.
Whilst we are here for the long-term, we are required by law to provide an answer to this question.
As a regulated financial institution, we are required to put in place arrangements in the event Bambucorn ceases operations.
For investors on the platform, we have put in place arrangements to ensure that issuers continue to satisfy any obligations that they may have and that the issuer’s shareholders’ register accurately reflects the number of shares purchased on the platform.
For issuers, we may appoint a third-party to ensure that the interest of shareholders is considered when making a decision. Furthermore, issuers shall be required to provide semi-annual progress reports to their investors, the template of which shall be shared.
We do not expect there to be any material implications on experts in the event Bambucorn ceases operations.