Intergreatme ‘no more queues’ app offers shares to public through crowdfunding

On Tuesday evening in Sandton, the founders and developers of start-up company Intergreatme announced their plan to raise capital to grow their business through crowdfunding platform Uprise Africa, which gives ordinary members of the public actual shares in businesses, unlike other crowdfunding platforms currently operating in South Africa.

Share certificates are issued to investors once target funding amounts are reached and the platform also pre-vets business proposals and individuals seeking funding.

As for Intergreatme, they are aiming at raising about R24 million for development and growth, to supplement about R22 million they say they have already raised privately. They are offering the public a 20% share of their business.

Their app, which is already up and running, stores users’ personal documents and information securely and allows them to avoid having to fill out forms at a host of partner locations, including the vehicle licensing department, doctors’ offices, banks, businesses and more. Through the app, users can even have their vehicle licence disc renewals and other documents delivered to them once they’re ready.

They currently have more than 20,000 app users and want to grow the product to offer new features that include “digital affidavits”, which could be accepted by, for example, banks as proof of new address once a user has moved house.

Their primary aim is to free their company from the need to be too directly involved in other businesses signing up to the service, to free them to reach a potentially far larger target of users. They even have their eye on global expansion.

The startup was founded in 2016 by Dewald Thiart, Luke Warner and James Lawson (pictured seated left to right below).

In their offering, they say investors will own shares in a company that “has a potential consumer base of 25 million credit active South Africans, as well as 5 billion people globally”. The minimum investment is R1,000 and they aim to declare dividends in the next two years.

They currently have 13 full-time employees and have run pilots with banks. They’ve publicised the value of their company at around R120 million for now.

As of early Sunday afternoon, the company had raised nearly R1.8 million, with 55 days left to reach its R24 million target.

In October last year they were awarded the most innovative solution prize in the MTN Business App of the Year Awards.