Igniteme heats up crowdfunding
Australia’s newest fundraising platform, Igniteme, is looking to push the crowdfunding barrow beyond its traditional confines, having raised more than $1 million since its inception.
Igniteme, put together by Australia’s first winner of The Apprentice, Andrew Morello, and former Australian Property Institute associate Kristjan Geering, covers a host of funding options, including charity donations, and private lenders offering loan facilities.
There’s also a crowd-sourced equity funding feature that will come into play once the Australian equity crowdfunding legislation comes into effect late next month.
The platform’s biggest project to date is raising money for an independent Australian full-length documentary on NSW one-punch attacks called The Polisher.
It’s a bit left-field and undeniably risky, but Igniteme founder and chief executive Mr Geering said it was an interesting test case to validate the effectiveness of Igniteme. “An Australian movie has not raised capital in this way before,” he told The Australian.
“The only other comparable film that raised money through crowdfunding would be Crocodile Dundee, but not all funding came from the crowd.”
Mr Morello said the idea behind the platform was relatively simple — giving new and budding local small businesses an alternative avenue to funding.
“There are many promising small Australian businesses that have great potential to expand, but sadly do not have the opportunity due to lack of funding,” Mr Morello said. “We want to change that with Igniteme.
“Helping small businesses has been dear to my heart because my father, who runs his own service station, has recently decided to put it up for sale to gain cash.
“My goal for Igniteme is to allow small business owners like my father, who are asset rich but cash poor, to put up part of their business for investment and receive cash in return.”
Unlike usual fundraising platforms that raise money for personal causes and small projects, Mr Geering said Igniteme had a portfolio of quality Australian companies, projects and charities that were “fully vetted and approved”.
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Source: Igniteme heats up crowdfunding – The Australian
