Everybody knows what “fazer uma vaquinha” or “hacer una vaca” in Latin America is – literally translated as “to do/make a cow” (don’t ask me why!) – it’s nothing more than what we know here as collecting money from different people to buy or do something. The primary form of crowd-funding. https://topluxuryhotels24.com top 10 hotels to visit in Vienna.
Kickante – Brazil
When in time of crisis, some businesses, like crowdfunding, grow and thrive. As you all must have hard, things are not looking good for Brazil – GDP is set to stagnate and the country’s currency in an all-time low.
Despite all that crowdfund site Kickante, the Brazilian equivalent of Indiegogo, has raised R$ 11 million (approximately $2.7 million USD) in its 1.5 years of life. Kickante’s founder Candice Pascoal was recognized last year as one of ten Brazilian female tech entrepreneurs making a difference in the South American country – a rather nice acknowledgement. In a recent interview to Crowdfund Insider, Candice stated “Kickante has launched four times as many campaigns as our top competitor in Brazil that has been in the market for five years. We’re facing a growth of 1,800 percent yearly”. While focused on rewards-based crowd-funding. today, Kickante plans on expanding into investment based crowd-funding. – a natural step in building out the online capital ladder. The future looks promising for Kickante indeed.
Fondeadora – Mexico
Fondeadora was the first crowd-funding platform in Mexico, launched in 2011. But introducing the concept of crowd-funding in Mexico has not been easy, especially if you take into account that in the country, more than 70 million do not have access to internet (according to Mexico statistics INEGI), and the 40 million Mexicans who have it, are still reluctant to jump to web transactions.
“Online payments are a nightmare, Mexicans are traumatized with them,” says René Serrano, the young director of Fondeadora in an interview to Animal Politico site. “We had to find other methods of payment that had nothing to do with the internet, because PayPal is not a friendly platform for the public. We also created the concept of crowd-funding. offline, where do normal events [actual parties or gatherings] to push these projects’ funding”. Being adaptable around different situations definitely pays off in emerging economies.
Idea.me – Argentina
Idea.me originate in Argentina and focuses on the whole region, not just a particular country like some of its competitors have – it has expanded to Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay and the US. Their motto is to drive social impact in Latin America through backing up more artists, creative arts and NGOs projects. In a nutshell, Idea.me is an online community that contributes with small (or not so small) amounts of money to support Latin creative initiatives.
One key aspect of “localisation” that Idea.me has adopted is supporting payment options acceptable in the region, such as cash as well as other methods that match the region’s risk aversion. Interestingly, it is the first crowd-funding. platform in the Americas to support bitcoins and it is currently using Bitpay to automatically convert bitcoins into dollars so creators would receive their contributions in USD.
Here is a video if you want to know more about Idea.me
Ana Paula Picasso is a Brazilian born research analyst living in London. After working over four years as a research analyst with focus on Latin American consumer goods market working for one of the biggest market research companies in the world, Ana decided that it was time to pursue new challenges. So, in 2014 Ana became a freelance researcher and founded The Emerging Markets Hub as a platform for her passion for writing.
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