The Financial Services Authority has issued two administrative decisions cancelling the licenses of Sharek Investment LLC and New Sphere LLC, which are carrying out activities in the field of securities and crowdfunding platforms. The decisions cancelled the licenses of the companies and will be deregistered from the register of the companies operating in the field of securities.

The administrative penalties were made because the companies failed to carry out the activity since their establishment pursuant to Article 123/a of the Executive Regulation of the Capital Market Law issued vide decision No. 1/2009 as part of the review of the licenses granted to a number of companies operating in the field of securities to practice the business of crowdfunding during 2022 , which was the first year of the crowdfunding market in the Sultanate of Oman after the issuance of the regulation for crowdfunding by decision No. 153/2021.

It is noteworthy that the number of the companies licensed to carry out crowdfunding activity is seven companies and only five companies actually commenced providing funding facilities to the emerging companies including small and medium enterprises with a total funding at RO 8.7 million. More than 140 companies benefited from such platforms during the period 2022-2024.