PledgeMe raises half a million dollars in four days

Wellington based crowdfunding platform PledgeMe Limited has raised over $500,000 through an equity crowdfunding campaign for themselves since it launched publicly on Monday night. The minimum goal of $500,080 was hit at 1:21pm today, and the campaign will run until 6 September or when the maximum goal of $900,000 is met.

“We’re so thankful for the continued support of our crowd” says PledgeMe co-founder Anna Guenther, “We can’t wait to go on the next stage of our company’s journey with our shareholders past, present, and future!”

PledgeMe was launched in 2012 as the first project based crowdfunding platform in New Zealand. In the last six years they’ve helped 1,200 successful campaigns with over $28 million pledged through the platform. In 2014, PledgeMe was the first equal licenced equity crowdfunding platform in New Zealand after the legislation changed to allow raising investment online without a public prospectus.

“Equity crowdfunding equity crowdfunding just makes sense to us” says Guenther, “it helps us truly understand what our campaigners go through preparing and running campaigns, and we’re the only platform to run a fully public equity crowdfunding campaign for themselves in Australia or New Zealand.”

PledgeMe wants to raise up to $900,000, which represents 11.1% of the company. Shares are priced at $164.50 each with a minimum purchase of one share.

“We’ve set the price at one share to make the investment accessible,” says Guenther “if our goal is to make equity crowdfunding equitable, we need to focus not just on the companies and their founders, but also the wider investor community.”

With this raise now successfully funded, PledgeMe has raised almost $1million across three equity crowdfunding rounds for themselves since they received their licence in 2014.

“We’ve achieved so much over the past few years through the investment from our crowd.” says Guenther “This latest round will help us launch well in Australia, focus on growing further in Aotearoa, and really help us make crowdfunding more accessible to communities that can’t (or won’t) receive traditional funding”

Funds raised in this round will be used on marketing, new hires, and further product development. PledgeMe received funding earlier this year to create a new product for indigenous entrepreneurs to raise funds called Tā Koha. The first Tā Koha campaign also launched today.

PledgeMe has almost 200 shareholders currently. Last financial year, PledgeMe had $767,983 in revenue with a profit of $252,971. Over the last three years, PledgeMe has grown over 90% in compounded annual growth.

The campaign will run until 6 September 2018, or when the maximum goal of $900,000 is met.

ENDS

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