Acorn Collective

With the onset of the era of the internet, lots of processes have been facilitated for people who would have to ask big banks and VC companies in the past to launch a project. Crowdfunding, which became popular in the late 2000s is a process of raising capital through an online platform. Millions of backers choose to fund projects they find interesting or beneficial. In fact, the total volume of global crowdfunding was of $30 billion dollars in 2015 and is estimated to reach $100 billion by 2025. Still, there are many problems with current platforms ranging from difficult access to low trust and so on. Acorn Collective is using the blockchain technology to tackle these problems.

As popular as crowdfunding is, many people do not have access to it. This issue is especially problematic in the developing world. Acorn Collective, unlike other platforms, accepts projects from all parts of the world. Projects can be on almost any issue that fits the ethical norms. In addition, AC is allocating a portion of the ICO proceeds to a Project Incentive Fund. These funds will be spent to incentivize new projects and generate activity on the platform. Another important feature of the platform that will facilitate access for many people is that it is free. Unless project authors decide to use advanced features of the platform, they do not have to pay a commission. In case of additional tools, a percentage of raised funds will be deducted.

Another big problem with crowdfunding is that many projects fail even if they manage to raise the funds. This could result from the lack of experience in project management. AC has an onboarding process for founders that includes tailored guidance and will equip the managers with necessary skills. In addition, the platform will partner up with accelerators and startup mentorship organizations to help the founders.

A very interesting feature of the platform is a marketplace that will offer third party services for startups. This will help them find resources other than funds to launch successful projects. Transactions in the marketplace will occur in a local token – OAK. Successful projects will also be allowed to place their products on the marketplace, facilitating access to the market.

Many people seem to avoid funding projects because of the lack of transparency. They do not want to invest their money in projects they are not sure will use these funds for stated purposes. AC has a feature that allows founders to set milestones for their projects. In case a milestone is not reached in time, the investments could be partially refunded. This will allow users to monitor more effectively the projects they fund. Additionally, there will be an Activity Transparency Ledger which will record all transactions done by the project founders in AC ecosystem.

Acorn Collective is a helpful platform for people with ideas across the world.

The project serves a definitely beneficial purpose. If it launches successfully, it will help many people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to funds to start working on projects. It solves many existing problems with current crowdfunding platforms. Low fees and easy access should attract founders and will likely make the platform competitive on the market. It is not completely clear how the platform will generate demand for OAK tokens once the project is launched. After all, the marketplace is just an extra feature of the crowdfunding business model and could be sidestepped by many users completely. Nevertheless, the idea itself looks like it can be put in practice successfully.