Two local Bristol entrepreneurs are preparing to launch a brand new crowdfunding platform offering a way for people to fund social and creative ideas and projects in Bristol launching before Christmas.
Oliver Mochizuki and Derek Ahmedzai created Fundsurfer.com to provide an additional source of funding for social and creative projects in a climate where lending has become restricted.
Fundsurfer will also allow users to offer support in the form of time and expertise alongside the traditional financial contribution. The site also offers a 1% commission fee paid to curated partners and Fundsurfer community reps that identify and recruit partners and projects for the platform. This is a new and unique way to bring incentivise individuals, community groups and anyone interested in supporting new ideas in their local area.
Fundsurfer Ltd has been accepted into the Setsquared Bristol centre based at the Engine shed in the cities Enterprise Zone, which accelerates early stage, high-tech, high-growth businesses and has helped its members raise over £100m since 2007 and create over 650 jobs. Having previously won two national awards from trade body, UKBI, the SETsquared Partnership was recently ranked 4th best business incubator in the world, and number one in Europe.
Oliver who is 34 and lives in Horfield said:
“We created Fundsurfer.com to offer a simple yet highly effective platform to raise funds. With councils expected to deliver 100% of the services for 60% of the budget there is huge scope for disruption of traditional funding models in a wide number of areas including civic crowdfunding and property development”
“Working in partnership with local community leaders we are launching a grassroots campaign to help people to get new ideas off the crowd and to support existing social and creative projects as well.
Derek said:
“It’s a real honour to be part of the Setsquared partnership, an opportunity which is brilliantly timed as we gear up to launch the platform, Bristol is a city that will continue to do great things and we want crowdfunding to be part of that. We are in discussion with the public and private sector to create a number of curated partnerships building on existing networks across Bristol. It is no exaggeration to say that in the future billions if not trillions of pounds will go through crowdfunding platforms. Anyone interested in submitting a project can register on the site for free and start raising funds”