Ann: Collaborate enters peer-to-peer Fintech market with FundX, page-2

COLLABORATE ENTERS $100B+ SME FINANCE MARKET WITH FUNDX

Collaborate Corporation Limited (Collaborate or the Company) (ASX: CL8) is pleased to announce it has expanded its reach into the rapidly expanding fintech industry through an initial investment in peer-to-peer SME lending platform FundX (www.FundX.com.au). FundX will also license Collaborate’s PeerPass platform as part of its funding assessment process.

What is FundX? FundX is a peer-to-peer invoice discounting and SME lending platform that offers a fast, simple and efficient way to fund business cashflow gaps, by advancing payments based on outstanding invoices with the click of a button. FundX connects businesses with investors who provide short term funding and enable them to bypass the restrictive and costly loans provided by banks. FundX bases its funding decisions on real time trading information by linking to the business accounts via Xero or MYOB. FundX launched in September 2015, has facilitated loans to several businesses and has a growing pipeline of potential borrowers and lenders. The system and site is under ongoing development and extended features will be launched in coming months.

Collaborate’s investment into FundX Collaborate has made an initial investment of $150,000 in Global Invoice Exchange Pty Ltd (which trades as FundX) for an initial 8.33% investment stake and is the largest investor in the recently completed investment round. The investors in this round have the option to double their investment in FundX at the current round’s valuation prior to the next funding round (i.e. even if FundX raises at a higher valuation Collaborate is able to invest an additional $150,000 at today’s lower valuation)

Outside the initial founding shareholders, Collaborate is the largest shareholder in FundX. Collaborate also has the ability to provide ongoing investment in accordance with the terms and conditions in the FundX shareholder deed. This will enable Collaborate to increase its ownership interest if it chooses to do so. Other shareholders in FundX include high net-worth investors in Australia and Asia. FundX is also supported by BlueChilli, one of Australia’s leading startup and early stage accelerators.

Collaborate’s CEO, Mr Chris Noone will join the Board of FundX as a non-executive director to represent Collaborate’s investment. Collaborate non-executive director, Mr Adrian Bunter is an advisory board member of FundX and also holds a minority equity interest in FundX.

“We are very excited to be involved with FundX in exploiting peer-to-peer and fintech opportunities in an SME market that is worth well over $100 billion in Australia. This is a great opportunity to disrupt the highly profitable yet inflexible and antiquated banking sector and add significant value for Collaborate shareholders” said Chris Noone, CEO of Collaborate.