Slourish is helping to connect quality micro-investment seekers with promising Nigerian businesses for an opportunity to be a part of the next generation brands while getting a return.
Founded last year, Slourish helps connect entrepreneurs with
the resources they need, be that assistance with tasks as small as
incorporation and corporate branding, or more ongoing assistance such as
mentorship and incubation.
People who want to support entrepreneurs in any number of
ways sign up on the community-based platform, with Slourish handling the
process of connecting them with entrepreneurs and rewarding them. Its major
role at this point is helping startups with fundraising, with it does by allowing
micro-investments to be made through the platform.
Seven businesses have so far been funded through Slourish,
while another 22 generated some percentage of their funding goal. More than 430
businesses are currently awaiting approval to be listed for funding on the
platform. Founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Latii Brayllot said he has
been pleased with the market response.
“We got over 10,000 signups within the first month of our
launch, without any promotion. We are yet to launch any marketing campaign, and
yet people keep coming,” he said.
“This is major market validation. We are currently taking
things into account and ready to drive our sales funnel, which we believe will
catapult our growth.”
Though the concept of crowdfunding is still quite new in
Nigeria, Brayllot said there is demand for services such as Slourish. He
believes there are 500,000 promising entrepreneurs in need of funding in the
country, and over two million Nigerians looking to grow their money.
“Since there are not enough VCs, angels and NPOs available
to fund these businesses, why not make a way for the people to fund the
entrepreneurs for a return?” he said.
Though Brayllot says Nigeria has a rising number of
accelerator and grant programmes, the chances of acceptance into them were low.
Slourish offers entrepreneurs are more direct, simplified route to assistance
and funding.
“We have simplified everything on our platform in such a way
that the crowd-investing comes like a single investment to the entrepreneur. Micro-investors
on the platform send us their money and we invest it in the entrepreneur. This
way, the entrepreneur won’t be dealing with hundreds of small investors,” he
said.
“We handle everything for both the business and the
investors on Slourish. We’ve also created several other perks for the users of
our platform.”
The startup is self-funded, and has no plans to raise
capital itself. Brayllot said it was focused on Nigeria, but anyone from
anywhere in the world can become a member of the platform and make
micro-investments. Slourish does hope to scale in future.
“Nigeria is not the only country with entrepreneurs that
need funding. We started with Nigeria because, well, we are Nigerians. But we
are certainly planning on making the service available to the whole African
entrepreneurial community once we are fully settled in Nigeria. We will start
scaling through West Africa until we are all over the continent,” Brayllot
said.
The startup makes money from commissions from its
crowd-investing services, and also owns small stakes in some of the businesses
that get funded through its platform.
“Our brand houses a few other side projects for
entrepreneurs, such as business development. While not all entrepreneurs want
funds, some need help in other ways. Sometimes, we practically help them set up
the business and this generates additional revenue for us,” Brayllot said.
“We also have a few loan packages for select entities which
are funded through our Hashed Profit Share Programme. This generates more
revenue through interests from which we are able to cover the cost of running
our operations and more.”
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