If there is one defining characteristic of a fintech company like Mekar, it is its constant quest for innovation. Mekar, a key player in the peer-to-peer lending industry in Indonesia, is always finding new ways to provide its funders with new investment alternatives. At the same time, it constantly expands its reach to include more and more Indonesian MSMEs in its list of small businesses that funders can support.
It is in that spirit that Mekar has now stepped into the world of Crowdfunding. Today, November 6, 2017, marks the day that the new Crowdfunding feature is launched and made available on Mekar’s website, Mekar.id.
For the uninitiated, Crowdfunding, as the name suggests, is the process of getting a large crowd of funders or investors to pay a small amount of money and invest in an innovative product or business.
With Crowdfunding, small businesses can find their way to people that have the cash that can help them grow bigger or reach a wider audience. For the investors, Crowdfunding is a good way to invest very early on in products, projects or businesses that have the potential to become big in the future, also on causes they believe in.
New Feature, New Offers
At the moment, Mekar offers two types of Crowdfunding: revenue sharing and product pre-order. In the revenue sharing scheme, funders who support a campaign of a business receive periodic payments based on a percentage of the latter’s sales in exchange for the money pledged.
For example, one campaign in Mekar by AKUN.biz is now offering a revenue share of 33% (effective, p.a.) for its funders, paid quarterly over the period of 4 (four) years, from 2018 to 2021. This is an excellent opportunity to invest in the fast-growing, award-winning, financial app that has attracted more than 35,000 users since its launching just over a year ago.
As a funder, you can also support businesses by pre-ordering their products, sometimes for less than the retail price. Your pledge will help the businesses finance the production of a large batch of their products. Right now you can pre-order a 3D printer from Indonesia’s first 3D printer manufacturer, BikinBot, and a bike from Ewabi, the first company in the country that produces a range of natural bamboo bikes.
Mekar is planning to offer other types of Crowdfunding in the future.
Mekar’s Competitive Edge
Mekar’s new Crowdfunding solution has advantages over most platforms out there. First, and most importantly, the businesses that are seeking Crowdfunding through Mekar are vetted so that only those that can demonstrate solid financial growth can set up a campaign. The businesses also have to have been in operation for at least one year.
For funders, this means the businesses in Mekar carry less risks than those in other Crowdfunding platforms where all businesses of any kind can seek funding. Funders in Mekar are investing in high growth businesses.
Moreover, when pre-ordering a product from a business in Mekar’s Crowdfunding page, you are buying a product that has been tested for the market. In other Crowdfunding platforms, you might find that the products that you can pre-order might still be in design or production stage and are not ready for the public yet. In Mekar, the businesses are fully operational with a full production line; they have been producing the product they are offering for quite some time, or have produced similar products before and are now coming up with a new type or model.
Another edge that Mekar has over other Crowdfunding platforms is the fact that Mekar, as it always has, only selects socially responsible businesses that create a positive social and environmental impact to be on its crowdfunder list.
Visit Mekar’s Crowdfunding page and pledge your support for Indonesian small businesses today.