Drofund is a Bitcoin-based and donation-based borderless crowdfunding platform that aims to change how entrepreneurs in Africa raise or access funding. The platform connects African entrepreneurs to global supporters for their startups by helping these entrepreneurs get funds though Bitcoin (BTC).
Drofund was launched in 2018 and has a ready platform that can be accessed by anyone to view and understand what they offer. The main focus for Drofund is startups and small businesses because these are the groups which have a hard time raising capital. With this platform, these businesses will be able to access funds to start and grow their businesses.
Many African entrepreneurs face a problem of raising capital. This is because Africa lacks an established ecosystem of angel investors and venture capitalists to finance and invest in viable businesses and business ideas. In addition, Africa has different currencies, governments and payment procedures which limit the amount one can invest in and also the chance of someone outside a certain country knowing about local businesses.
Marketing a business outside one’s country is also hard which means that businesses are only limited to investors in their home country. Having one payment model for all interested investors from different African countries is almost impossible for entrepreneurs.
Drofund will use Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency which can be used by anyone across the globe with minimum fees, as the model of payment. This payment option will eliminate the high transfer fees associated with using traditional remittance service providers. Also, it will help reduce the amount of time it takes to transfer funds to the recipients.
With Bitcoin, investors from Russia, USA, Mali or any other country in the world can fund and support a business in Botswana or Kenya for example. The remittance issue will be solved by this payment model. From the funds entrepreneurs raise through the platform, they will be required to pay a 5% fee which shall be used to sustain the platform.
Before any campaign can go live and be in a position to access funding from the platform, the Drofund team will perform a thorough review of the project, the owners, their location and any other relevant information that will ascertain the legality of the project. Entrepreneurs need to fill all the provided fields on the platform with the right information about their projects before their campaigns go live on the platform.
After this, they can start marketing their crowd funding drive on any network to attract interested investors and supporters. Drofund will also help all the projects to market their business which is an added advantage that will help them access a larger pool of investors.
For an entrepreneur, running their own ICO can be complicated and hard. There are a lot of steps that a project needs to go through before they are able to launch their ICO. Additionally, marketing can be complex and expensive for startups, which reduces their chances of success in the blockchain market. Also, for non-blockchain based businesses, ICOs do not make a lot of sense and may be less likely to attract funding from investors in the blockchain space.
Drofund offers a less technical alternative to running an ICO on your own as a startup or existing small business. The alternative for Drofund is fairly straightforward for entrepreneurs. Even businesses that are not blockchain-based now have an equal opportunity to raise funds through Drofund.
According to Drofund, their ultimate mission is to propel African startups and small businesses. The company looks forward to helping 500 African startups and small businesses to raise capital in the next 12 months. Currently, Drofund is running a crowdfunding campaign to raise $40000 which will help to launch a better platform, market and acquire top talent to run the platform. For this reason, there are no current plans for an ICO.
