LetsEndorse Development Pvt. Ltd, a Bangalore-based startup which runs an online network for social causes, has raised an undisclosed amount from Chandigarh Angels Network, Tata Trusts-backed Social Alpha, and other unnamed angel investors.
“We launched the platform in July 2016 and, since then, have fuelled over 30 development-oriented projects, got many paying NGOs on-board, created a team of social enthusiasts and technologists and developed a suite of technology products,” said Varun Kashyap, the co-founder of LetsEndorse.
With the latest capital, LetsEndorse will use the funds to enhance its technology footprint, expanding to more geographies and building a cohesive community of doers and enablers.
Founded in March 2014, LetsEndorse is a people-powered ecosystem of inclusive development where NGOs can raise funds and popular endorsements, while companies can choose between a variety of selections to invest in social campaigns matching their vision, policy, area of impact and popular preferences.
In other words, LetsEndorse is a network-cum-marketplace for social development, comprising non-profits, social entrepreneurs, companies, communities and local administration. It uses technology to build collaborations for co-creating and scaling up solutions, in addition to mobilising funds through a mix of crowd-funding and corporate donations.
Besides, the company has also built a four-product technology suite for NGOs, “wherein the profile of an NGO converts to a website on the click of a button. It has payment gateway integration and engagement APIs that are powered by LetsEndorse,” Kashyap explained.
LetsEndose claims that it has a community of more than 500 social entrepreneurs across the globe, accredited NGOs across causes, several thousand individual contributors and a set of different-sized companies. The company currently earns money through fundraising fee and also generates proceeds from its technology offerings.
Chandigarh Angels Network has invested in seven startups so far. Last month, it had invested Rs 1.6 crore (about US$235,000) in Mumbai-based healthcare startup Yolo Health.
By Vivian Foo, VCNewsNetwork
