The fundraising app Koalect raised €350,000 in March 2016 and is now expanding internationally with its first campaigns in the Netherlands and the UK. The startup is also currently entering into partnerships in Luxembourg. Koalect has developed fundraising tools for local organizations such as NGOs, schools, sport clubs, music academies and cultural centers, and to date has helped organizations collectively raise over€1.5 million. We asked Maxime Bouckaert, CEO of Koalect, to take us back to 2014 and tell us the story of his startup, which was accelerated by NEST’up from the very beginning.
(Featured Image: Koalect’s team / Image Credit: Koalect)
What is Koalect?
Koalect is a Belgian startup that helps non-profits digitalize their fundraising campaigns by building their own fundraising or crowdfunding platforms. They can easily launch and manage campaigns in which people launch funding projects. That’s how we helped the Red Nose campaign collect €900,000 through more than 2,500 projects for children with psychological problems. And it’s how we have assisted 20 entrepreneurial journalists collect over €80,000 for their next documentaries and 200 volunteers collect over €135,000 to protect nature and the environment in Belgium.
How did you come up with the idea?
At first we developed a web application to help schools and other local associations collect money by selling products. By following the Lean Startup approach we developed quickly and learned fast which features where relevant and key to our value proposition. After a few months of working with local organizations, Koalect was approached by large NGO’s that were in need of quality fundraising tools to activate their volunteers. We then learned how to develop platforms for others using our toolbox. We don’t see Koalect as one idea; rather we view it more as an iteration of many different ideas that create a product, which we believe changes the relationship between fundraisers and their communities.
What is the traction of your startup?
We did about 50 local projects before working with larger NGO’s. Today we have about 25 NGO’s as clients and we have helped them raise over €1,500,000 through different platforms and campaigns.
What is your business model?
We charge a monthly licence fee for the platform based on the complexity of the organization’s needs and the amount of money it collects. The fee starts at €200 per month for small organizations. Then we debit a 6% transaction fee.
What are the next steps of your strategy?
We’re currently expanding internationally into the Netherlands and the UK, as well as starting to enter into partnerships in Luxembourg.
This article was first published in SILICON
