Kakitangan.com, a human resource management software, recently launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on pitchIN with a minimum funding target of RM200,000.
Kakitangan.com’s core features are free-to-use, with users paying to access premium features and other add-ons. According to their data provided, they are currently being used by over 3000 companies.
Within 24 hours, they were well past their target with their target, with RM1 million raised. This is 485% above their minimum funding target on pitchIN Equity Crowdfunding.
One of the reasons behind the successful funding was prodigious sharing on social media. Investors had to act fast as it became apparent that it was going to be funded within hours.
In a statement on their Facebook page, they said, “This funding will enable us to improve the product and serve you better. Our dream of helping more and more companies to becoming great companies continues.”
Vulcan Post reached out to Effon Khoo, founder of Kakitangan.com to see what he had to say.
He confessed that the team at Kakitangan.com also had their doubts leading up to the equity crowdfunding campaign. He added, “I was not prepared to close it within a day. That did surprise me.”
When asked what made investors so prepared to invest in their company, he told Vulcan Post, “Actually, most of our investors are already using Kakitangan.com in their businesses. They like it and they think we’re building a good product that helps, so they’re happy to support us moving forward. Of course, they also buy into what we’re doing because they think it’s heading in the right direction—they’re buying into the future.”
The investors themselves are very diverse, ranging from 18 to 69 years old. Several startup founders joined regular investors in backing Kakitangan.com. There were even foreign investors who decided to participate in the deal.
Kakitangan is a recipient of a grant from Cradle Fund worth RM150k and also joined Cradle’s Coach and Grow Programme in 2015 and the MaGIC Accelerator in 2016. “The funds and coaching that I received from Cradle, CGP, Alliance Bank and MaGIC really helped me fine-tune and grow my business and prepare us for this fund raising exercise”, said Effon.
Giving a quick summary of what the funding was going to be used for, he said, “We’re improving the customer experience, the product, and increasing our user base.”
As an investee company under the Angel Tax Incentive, Kakitangan.com is benefiting from this government approved initiative to encourage more early stage investments by the private sector. The incentive was started with the hope of reducing risks usually associated with early stage investments by giving back in the form of tax exemption to accredited angel investors.
Sam Shafie, the CEO of pitchIN believes that Kakitangan.com’s success is a combination of two factors; the product itself and the efforts of all parties before even going live with the campaign. He said, “The potential to become a leader in the HR software industry is apparent. Furthermore, the team behind Kakitangan.com, led by Effon Khoo is very strong. Another reason why Kakitangan did so well is because the pitchIN and Kakitangan.com teams worked hard in concert to bring the deal to the attention of investors.”
Congratulations to Effon Khoo and the Kakitangan.com team!
Feature Image Credit: bizsmart.com.my
