14 DAY TRIAL // Good news for people who are thinking about starting a social, environmental or health-related business: there is a new crowdfunding site in town.
The site, dubbed CrownMission, is the creation of entrepreneur Karen Darby and is intended to help potential investors and people who feel that they can make a difference while making a living get in touch with one another.
Karen Darby hopes that, over the next five years, she will manage to lend a helping to at least 10,000 businesses whose working agendas benefit not just some people's pockets, but also the environment and society.
She details that, thanks to her website, regular folks can invest as little as ₤10 (about €12 / $16) in a business – maybe even businesses – of their choice and get shares in return.
The way Karen Darby sees things, it's a win-win-win situation for the investors, the business owners and the planet.
“CrowdMission is all about making money and making a difference. We connect investors to ambitious, high-growth businesses with a social dimension. These businesses could one day be real game-changers and have a truly beneficial effect on the planet,” she says, as cited by Sustainable Review.
Furthermore, “innovators in bioscience and green technology don’t necessarily see themselves as social entrepreneurs, but to us they’re heroes. It’s their companies that have enormous potential to change lives as well as making a healthy profit for investors.”
Of the investment opportunities now available on Karen Darby's CrowdMission, greenheads might be interested in Power Predictor, i.e. a device that tells people which green energy sources are best harvested in different regions, and iPower, an initiative that aims to make renewables more accessible to ordinary folks.
The two green-oriented projects have already secured several investors, but still have a long way to go until they meet their target. Here's hoping they'll eventually get the funding they need.