Bangalore based FuelADream is an India focussed Crowdfunding Platform

April 19, 2016March 23, 2018 0 Comment Bangalore, Crowdfunding, FuelADream, Indian Startups, MarketPlace

FuelADream is a cr owdfunding platform and marketplace for people & organizations that aim to raise funds for creative ideas, causes, charities etc. Founded in Mid-2015 and based in Bangalore, the start-up aims to impact 2.2 billion people in India, Africa & S.E Asia. Fuel A Dream has raised $ 250,000 in an initial round of funding over the last 8 months from a clutch of individual investors from the corporate world.

Crowdfunding is becoming an increasingly popular way to raise money for innovative ideas and social causes. It is so convenient: just sign up with a high-quality crowdfunding platform, pitch your ‘story’/ idea there, leverage the power of social media to drive traffic to your campaign, and poof, you could raise the required funds, if your campaign story is compelling enough!

The worldwide market has exploded over the last 5 years. Just like we have seen in most new technology led disruptions – the market has taken off in the USA & Europe and is now beginning to impact Asia. The global market size for crowd funding vaulted from $ 6.1 Bn in 2013 to $ 34 Bn in 2015. The ideas & charities segment is a $ 10 Bn segment out of the $ 34 Bn global market. It has been predicted that by 2025, the global crowd funding market will grow to $ 90 Bn. However, going by current trends, it could be higher than that.

Fueladream is focused on the developing markets & looks to both disrupt the traditional ways of raisingfunds here & create an alternative mode of funding. Fueladream is the brainchild of Ranganath Thota. His team is focused on transforming how people raise and contribute money for ideas, social causes and other activities. FuelADream.com connects the campaign owners (people who want to raise money) to funders in a very productive and engaging way.

According to Ranganath Thota, Founder and CEO, “Crowd funding is a force of good, but is yet torealize its potential in developing markets, like India. Fueladream.com aims to address this opportunity by building a platform to serve both the ‘passion’ & ‘compassion’ segments. The ‘Passion’ segment comprises of people raising funds to realize their innovative ideas & the ‘Compassion’ segment covers those raising funds for social causes.”

Why FuelADream stands apart

Fueladream is bringing a unique combination of differentiators that aim to spur market creation, and address a key need gap.

Market Creation:

Marketing & Alliances: Apart from investing in PR & digital marketing to bring traffic, Fueladream shall look to partner with brands & corporates to participate on the platform.

Organisation Structure: FuelADream.com has their own Business Development team, Content writers, Graphic designers to help the campaigners to tell their stories in the most effective way

Campaigns in Indian languages: Why should a ‘giving’ platform appeal only in English? FuelADream.com makes a campaign pitch available in Indian languages too, starting with Hindi.. It broad bases the appeal of the stories; making it easy for the vernacular constituencies

Addressing the need gap for transparency & accountability

Profile pages for transparency – In a market place as this, it is important that Campaign Owners’ profiles are complete, clear & readily accessible for Funders to check their backgrounds & track records. Funders too can create their ‘giving’ profiles.

Commitment to updates – One of the big need gaps in the Indian market is the absence of the feedback loop to the Funders – as in, they rarely get to know what happens after the money is given, what impact did it generate. All Campaign Owners on FuelADream.com need to commit to their frequency of updates after they raise their funds, BEFORE starting their campaign here.

Crowd Rating of Campaigns for accountability: All Funders get to rate the campaign on a scale of 1 to 10 during the contribution. These ratings get aggregated into a Crowd Rating for every campaign & displayed prominently. This enables well rated campaigns to attract more Funders. These ratings remain open at the time of the updates as well, and the Funders can revise them depending on the quality & timeliness of the updates.

Have a look at this new crowdfunding platform and let us know what you think about in the comments below

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