Crowdfunding as a funding opportunity for youth start-ups in Malaysia

One of the many hurdles that youth start-ups are facing in support of their pre-start-up capitals is access to finance. This paper highlights the expectations of Malaysian youth start-ups on crowdfunding activities as one of the sources of alternative funding in assisting them to pursue pre-start-up capitals. The paper examines the types of crowdfunding models being offered in the Malaysian setting. It further explores which types of crowdfunding models appear to be more suitable for the needs of youth pre-start-ups. In this context, a quantitative survey was conducted to investigate relevant models, its awareness levels and expectations of youth start-ups in selecting crowdfunding. The survey received 202 responses of Malaysian youth start-ups with a business of not less than two years. The overarching impression is that Malaysia, despite being the first ASEAN country with its own legal framework on crowdfunding, has placed focus merely on equity crowdfunding. Within the context of youth start-ups, the results indicate that youth prefer donation-based and reward-based crowdfunding. Results from the multiple regression analysis further show that little support was received from relevant authorities on promoting donationbased and reward-based crowdfunding to assist youth start-ups. The originality and value of this paper lie on the expectation of youth start-ups to pursue their business venture. While equity crowdfunding offers more risks, donation-based and reward-based crowdfunding provide better opportunities to ease youth start-ups to pursue the needs of their venture