South African regtech startup Intergreatme has smashed its target on its Uprise.Africa crowdfunding campaign in just six days, securing almost US$2 million.
Disrupt Africa reported on Monday Intergreatme, which has developed a web and app platform that transforms onboarding for businesses and digitises personal information for over 25 million credit-active South Africans, had launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Uprise.Africa, making 20 per cent of its shares available in a bid to raise ZAR24 million (US$1.67 million).
However, since the campaign went live on Friday, it has exceeded expectations, and Intergreatme has already raised ZAR28.5 million (US$1.98m) from 169 investors (as at 5pm GMT+2 on Tuesday, May 21). Uprise.Africa allows South Africans to invest between ZAR1,000 (US$70) and ZAR5 million (US$348,000) in campaigns.
There are still 53 days to run of the campaign, but the amount of funding Intergreatme will take on does have a limit. In its campaign brief, the startup said it was open to accepting more than the ZAR24 million asked, but that was limited to an additional ZAR8 million for another five per cent equity – ZAR32 million (US$2.22 million). At the current rate, it will not be long before that upper limit is reached.
Intergreatme will use the funds raised to create a self-service platform for SMMEs, while adding additional features and functionality to its app. These include a digital affidavit, trusted connections, QR information sharing, digital ID and drivers’ licenses.
The self-service platform will drive a steady flow of businesses to sign up by themselves, allowing the core operations team to focus on larger organisations with longer procurement cycles and much larger customer bases. Already the business has signed up a number of local banks and telecoms to manage their RICA and FICA processes.
