This week, New Zealand equity crowdfunding platform PledgeMe announced startup Eat My Lunch is launching the first campaign for its soon to launch lending platform, PledgeMe.Lend.
Last month, co-founder and CEO of PledgeMe, Anna Guenther, announced the New Zealand-based crowdfunding portal has received approved by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to launch its very own peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform. The website will reportedly allow companies and organisations to run transparent initiatives to crowdsource lending from not only their existing crowd, but also the wider market.
Guenther stated:
“We’re very excited to have completed this important step towards launching PledgeMe.Lend, which we believe will democratise debt in New Zealand. With over two-thirds of the international crowdfunding market being lending based, we realised that entering the peer-to-peer lending market was an obvious next step for PledgeMe. Allowing our campaigns to offer loan notes provides an important extra piece of the crowdfunding market in Aotearoa.”
Eat My Lunch has made more than 150,000 lunches for children in low-decile schools. The comapny currently operate in Auckland and Hamilton and are borrowing to help fund growth and feed more hungry kids in new regions. Last year it successfully secured $130,000 through PledgeMe.
Sharing her thoughts about the upcoming initiative, CEO of Eat My Lunch, Lisa King, commented:
“We are really excited to be the first campaign on PledgeMe.Lend. Their values and vision align perfectly with the goals we’ve set in terms of being innovative in the way we do business and our mission to create social change through something as routine as eating lunch.”
Guenther noted:
“Eat My Lunch has already proven they have a crowd with their record setting campaign last year. We’re excited to see them continue to grow in an innovative and engaging way with transparent crowdlending.”
She then added:
“[PledgeMe.Lend] gives more established companies and other organisations the ability to go out to their own crowds and borrow money at a potentially better interest rate. On the lender’s side, they’re able to receive potentially higher returns too, and help the organisations they care about fund the things they need.
“We listened to our crowd of companies and forward thinking not-for-profits when we decided to create our third crowdfunding product. PledgeMe.Lend is for orgnaisations who are interested in raising larger amounts of capital, have a demonstrated ability to repay its lenders, and who can’t or don’t want to sell shares
“Lisa and her team at Eat My Lunch have achieved so much to date. They are one of New Zealand’s flagship examples of a social enterprise that scales their impact at the same rate at which they grow their company. They’re doing things differently, which is why they make a perfect fit for our new Lending platform.”
In order to participate on PledgeMe.Lend, companies need to be the following:
- Be a legal entity (i.e. a registered company, charity, society or school)
- Show an ability to repay the loan.
- Have a clear dollar figure for the loan.
- Have a clear reason for the loan.
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