The emergence of crowdfunding activities in the Philippines in recent years now valued to millions has compelled the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to craft rules and regulations that will govern them. In fact SEC announced last December that it is set to release a draft. There are now a few crowdfunding platforms in the country engaged in rewards programs, donation, net profit sharing, among others.
Compared to platforms overseas, local crowdfunding have smaller sizes, according to Patch Dulay, founder and CEO of The Spark Project. His company offers both donation and rewards-based crowdfunding.
“There are a lot of consideration for offline modes of transaction. Technically, you cannot offer equity and lending based CF yet because of current local regulations,” Dulay said, in an interaction with Fintechnews.
Dulay said Spark Project is in collaboration with the SEC and has in fact given comments for the first draft of the CF rules and regulation being patterened after established regulations in the United States, Canada, and Singapore. SEC’s goals are to encourage capital formation, and to protect investor interests.
Here are some of the top crowdfunding platforms in the Philippines:
Cropital
Visual from Cropital’s Facebook page.
Designed to connect anyone to help finance local farmers, Cropital claims to be a globally recognized organisation whose development is being supported by Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC), Forbes 30 Under 30, Young Entrepreneurs Society of the Philippines (YES), and Internet.org. It is a social enterprise that aims to improve the income and productivity of farmers through crowdfunding, providing scalable and sustainable financing.
Established in 2015, Cropital does net profit sharing scheme to secure sustainability and scalability. According to the company, use cases and historical statistical data show rates of returns for users, ranging from 3 per cent to 30 per cent in less than six months time.
Through Cropital’s online platform, investors are asked to choose a farm or farms to invest in. Once the farm has been fully funded, the farmers will be provided with the resources they need to start farming. The funds and resources will then be utilized to improve production. Cropital manages the fund for the farmer making sure it goes to the right resources, assuring as well that investors will get a return on investment. This is realized after the harvest and the produce has been sold. The capital will return to the investor’s wallet together with the profit shared.
FarmOn
Similar to Cropital, FarmOn serves as a crowdfunding community where people can help farmers on their financial needs even as they reap rewards for their contributions. It helps partner farmers by guiding them in finding the right markets for the products they produce. Manila-based web publishing company Sproads estabished FarmOn in 2014.
Backed by agriculturists from the Department of Agriculture and farm professionals, FarmOn provides partner farmers with advance methodologies and techniques to further boost their knowledge and skills like techniques on proper soil management, breeding and raising livestocks, crop protection, environmental sustainability, farm diseases, and harvesting.
FarmOn published on its website that it currently owns 96 hectares of farmland property being used for farming. The farms are managed by partners and local farmers located in Isabela and Quirino Province. The farms that were tilled are all properties of FarmOn.
Gava
Launched in July 2016 by Singapore-registered company Gava Tech Pte Ltd, Gava operates in the Philippines and is perhaps the most popular crowdfunding platform in the country to date with its online donor community function. It allows the creation of crowdfunding campaigns for various causes through its GavaGives website, be it personal, for charity programs, corporate social responsibility or CSRs, school projects, and many more.
Gava utilizes several payment options both online and offline making it easier for contributors to support their chosen campaigns which Gava actively promotes through social media.
Approaching only its second year, Gava has raised millions of donations already from different campaigns including its most successful and still ongoing campaign the University of Santo Tomas College of Science’ “Project AGham” that wishes to continue educating future scientists and promote the “culture of science” as a driver of social change and development of the nation. Based on GavaGives, the project has so far raised $52,606 or P2.6 million with the target of $80,000. Gava’s charity organization partners include World Vision, Operation Blessing, CARA, Haribon Foundation, Save the Children, WWF, Make Your Nanay Proud Foundation, and Children’s Hour.
Gava has also ventured into blockchain by partnering with Ireland-based company Pluma Technologies Ltd for the creation of a hyperledger fabric technology. According to a report, Gava seeks to develop Gavachain, a blockchain foreign aid donation system that will provide a fully transparent transaction using TCM – triple confirmation method where the public can monitor funds real time, from donor to beneficiary up to its actual use.
Spark Project
Spark is a crowdfunding website and startup community where entrepreneurs and changemakers can submit their projects and when approved, they get listed on the site, and Spark earns from its listing and commission fees.
Founded in 2013, the local platform showcases projects to like-minded people who are willing to pitch in money for something compelling and worthwhile. These supporters, called backers, get rewarded when they fund a project.
“As of 2017 we now offer both donation and rewards based crowdfunding, providing a variety on online and offline modes of payment,” Spark founder and CEO Patch Dulay said.
“A lot of our milestones are offline milestones. Spark Fest is our flagship annual conference for aspiring entrepreneurs,” he added.
Spark disclosed that its community of entrepreneuers have raised P5.8 million, launched 63 projects, has 2,678 backers, and exceed rate of 62 per cent.
Upbuilds
Upbuilds.com is a crowdfunding platform that focuses on solid investment types such as raising capital on assets-back business and income generating real estate properties. Users of the platform can invest for as low as P10,000 and up to 10 per cent of the total capital. Managed and operated by Matapat Na Pagtutulungan Multipurpose Cooperative (mnpcoop.com), Upbuild’s vision is to create a global community of investors (especially OFWs) that will have a solid investments on businesses and/or to be part owner on real estate projects that can generate income.
Among its most successfully funded businesses to date are agriculture-related, such as the Desmond Farm and Nursery which is about production of cacao beans (P10 million), and the Carabao Mango Plantations – Hydrotec or the farming of up to 1000 Carabao mango tress that harvests twice a year (P4.62 million).
Featured image via Pexels
