Problem People in need in French West African countries have used social media platforms to ask for help for tragedies relief for the most part but donors in Africa and abroad are reluctant to donate due to unsafe/unfamiliar donations channels available. Solution Our Crowdfunding Platform will be the solution to the problem by providing a safe and customer-driven platform to allow people in French West African countries to donate money through a secure and accessible platform. Product RaiseMeFunds will allow Africans in the diaspora and back home to donate money for personal campaigns and to organizations. Customers & Feedback According to customer discovery we have done, Africans in the diaspora and back home will tend to donate money through campaigns if the channel is secure and affordable. So, we’re targeting the West African community abroad and donors abroad to provide access to a safe product for them. Market In 2019, the global Crowdfunding market size was USD 13.930 billion, and it is expected to reach USD 39.79 billion by the end of 2026. African volumes in a variety of crowdfunding models reached $182 million in 2016, growing 118% from $83 million in 2015. From a regional perspective, 41% of these volumes have been recorded in West Africa, 28% have been recorded in Southern Africa, 24% in Eastern Africa, and the remaining 7% in North and Central Africa. We picked Ivory Coast to install our headquarters because Ivory Coast is number five in the fastest growing economies in the world with an annual remittance ranging from $340-$390 million dollars. Business Model RaiseMeFunds is a crowdfunding platform that simply allows anyone to raise money for social causes. Campaigns can be launched in various categories, ranging from emergencies to medical; Individuals, as well as teams and charities, are eligible to open campaigns on the platform RaiseMeFunds shall make money by charging users a fee for every donation they receive. These are called platform and transaction fees. The platform furthermore generates money from donations that users can make directly towards the platform. Competition Currently, Donate-ng is the only crowdfunding platform in sub-Saharan Africa focused on personal crowdfunding which is only implemented in Nigeria. We are going to have our offices in Côte d'Ivoire. Value creation Unlike the Donate-ng platform, we will be based in French-Speaking countries starting with Ivory Coast, and eventually move to Senegal, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, where they are no existing crowdfunding now. Recently, a Nigerian based startup (PayStack), the only Nigerian payment processing company in Nigeria was acquired by the American giant payment processing company (Stripe) for $200 million. Just an example of how startups in Africa are progressing exponentially. In addition, developing our personal secure payment processing system allows us to cut costs towards platforms like Stripe. Sales and Marketing Partnerships with telecommunications companies like (Orange, MTN) to facilitate our network and marketing strategy in Ivory Coast. We plan to work with local newspapers and social media experts to bring awareness to our platform. Currently, we are not able to predict any sales. Investment Needed In year one, we will need $10,500 for a server and maintenance, $20,000 for legal protection/Registration, $50,000 for an office, marketing, and HR. Team Jean Richard Loubao Kraka: CEO & Co-founder. Originally from Ivory Coast and Co-founded Innovative Apollo media, he is bringing his experience to RaiseMeFunds. Loubao has witnessed people struggling for paying their medical bills during his youth and decided to find a solution by working toe to toe with Elijah O. Elijah Olasukanmi - COO & Co-founder. Originally from Nigeria, Elijah is the co-founder of Innovative Apollo Media, he has experienced the same struggle in Nigeria and he’s bringing his experience in product management, digital marketing, and business development from IAM and Microsoft to RaiseMeFunds to build a community that thrives and are connected. Kayla Greene - Product Manager. Kayla is bringing experience in program management, operations, and analytics from SpaceX and Microsoft to RaiseMeFunds to help create quantifiable solutions for communities here and across the world. Tani Makovsky - Business Developer. Tani is leveraging his expertise in business development, project management, and tech consulting at OurCrowd, CYC, and Deloitte to research and position RaiseMeFunds in the West African market.