Paramount Corp, a property development and investment holding company, has announced an investment of RM10 million in all-in-one e-commerce ecosystem builder, Commerce DotAsia Ventures Sdn Bhd (Commerce.Asia).
In a statement, the company said the investment was made possible through its wholly owned investment vehicle Magna Intelligent Sdn Bhd (Magna) and Magna’s 30%-owned associated company, Omegaxis Sdn Bhd, which owns Fundaztic, one of the first peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platforms in Malaysia licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia.
Commeting on the venture, Paramount’s Corporate Strategy & Investment head, Tracy Gan said: “The pandemic had shifted consumer behaviour and accelerated e-commerce adoption worldwide over the past two years. As such, our investment in Commerce.Asia is timely given its end-to-end ecosystem, track record, and business model which has almost doubled in revenue since 2020 and turned profitable in 2021.”
Paramount’s core business is in property development while its coworking division offers a network of collaborative ecosystems uniquely designed for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, and corporates.
This strategic investment in Commerce.Asia will go into creating strong business synergies between Paramount and Commerce.Asia and new revenue streams for both groups. This expenditure also falls in line with Paramount’s five-year (2020-2024) strategic plan to identify new sources of earnings, particularly in the digital space.
“The convergence of two fast emerging trends – fintech and e-commerce – serves as the platform for Fundaztic to provide financing to Commerce.Asia’s network of merchants utilising advanced data analytics and insights,” said Gan, adding that it also deepens and broadens the merchant ecosystem available to the Paramount Group.
“Moving forward, Paramount aims to further increase our footprint in the digital space and will continue to be on the lookout for opportunities to grow this segment especially those that create synergy with our existing investments or businesses.”