Everyone knows about crowdfunding, the practice of funding an idea, business, or project by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people via a crowdfunding platform. There is also a thing called equity funding. Through this process, one raises larger amounts of capital through the sale of shares in the enterprise to be. Whilst small compared to crowdfunding, equity funding is growing - also in Africa. Uprise.Africa in South Africa is such platform. Its top achievement? Helping a startup beer company in Cape Town raise $85,000 in 24 hours. 

There are certain requirements that need to be met in order to use Uprise.Africa as a source of crowdfunding. The basic profile of the business has to meet the following requirements:

1. It needs to be a small to medium enterprise

2. The business needs to have a good potential for returns (10% to 40% plus) with a strong team.

3. The venture needs to be registered 

4. The company must be based and operational in South Africa

5. The entrepreneur must have exclusive rights to his/her business.

"Uprise.Africa works with entrepreneurs to create a pitch that will showcase their business and the investment opportunity. If the opportunity is interesting then the "crowd" will invest," writes Rajgopaul.

"In terms of promotion and marketing, campaign promotion is a collaboration between the entrepreneur and Uprise.Africa which also uses online and real-world networks to promote campaigns as well as using traditional media channels."

There is a fee of R23,000 ($1900) if businesses wish to use the Uprise.Africa services. The fee is fully refundable if the crowdfunding campaign is successful, and covers legal due diligence costs (R5000), financial due diligence costs (R5000), a prospectus (R8000) and various admin costs (R2000). 

Half of this joining fee will be refunded if Uprise.Africa decides not to take the deal live on the platform.

For more information: Uprise.africa