The online impact investing platform completes seed funding round and aims to connect investors with businesses contributing to sustainability in distressed and at-risk communities
CHICAGO, Illinois – FundingHope, LLC (www.fundinghope.com) today announced it has received commitments to complete a substantially upsized seed financing round. The funds will be used to further develop and launch its ground-breaking proprietary debt and equity investment crowdfunding portal that connects impact investors, and the general public, with entrepreneurs and small business owners contributing to sustainability in distressed and at-risk communities in the United States. The seed funding round amount was not disclosed.
“These funds will help us complete our state-of-the-art technology platform, launch our hyper-targeted strategic marketing strategy, and accelerate our global growth plans,” said Dorian Dickinson, FundingHope Co-Founder and Managing Director. “We have worked hard to prove the impact investing model for investment crowdfunding, develop an engaging and unique platform, build strategic alliances, and demonstrate need in the marketplace for vetted, investment opportunities that help communities most in need and grow a stronger planet.”
FundingHope was founded on the premise that traditional funding models are broken. Entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in economically disadvantaged communities often experience the greatest difficulties accessing legitimate financial resources to grow their businesses and communities. Access to traditional capital in these communities is typically unavailable or prohibitively costly due to restrictive regulatory policies, poor credit of the borrower, or inadequate financial markets. Poverty hotspots across America, and around the world, represent a serious challenge to the “leave no one behind” spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and puts residents with little or no place to turn at increased risk for mental illness, chronic disease, higher mortality, diminished earning capacity, and lower life expectancy. Poverty, hunger, lack of healthcare and sanitation, limited access to education, and rising costs of doing business all lead to a culture of despair, lower expectations of future success, increased mental health challenges, and reduced probabilities of favorable outcomes. By definition, a loss of hope.
FundingHope aims to help sustainability-focused companies in distressed and at-risk communities raise money to grow their businesses, create more jobs, and build a safer, cleaner, healthier future by connecting them to an active pool of investors looking to invest in opportunities that make a meaningful difference for the world.
FundingHope is positioned to revolutionize how disadvantaged startups and small businesses raise capital. FundingHope’s business model addresses the inequalities in access to capital that are based on gender, race, socioeconomic status, and geography by developing their first-of-its-kind online financial technology that is specifically targeted to improving sustainability in at-risk communities.
This current round of funding will support project development, strategic marketing, and global expansion efforts.
Looking beyond the launch of the FundingHope investment crowdfunding platform in the United States, the company is actively pursuing partnerships and growth opportunities in Europe, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. FundingHope has future plans to introduce platform enhancements and additional products that will allow companies to raise additional rounds of funding and for investors to be able to trade and sell their investments. FundingHope, LLC will initially operate as a crowdfunding portal registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and as a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and plans to go live in 2023.