Over the last decade, we’ve had so many successful campaigns raise the funds they need through their crowd. In this article, you’ll learn about some of our top successes – and how they did what they did.
Quickest project to $100,000
Nisa, a company that provides employment to former refugee and migrant women to manufacture ethical underwear, raised $100,000 in 24 hours in 2023. They offered rewards like bespoke underwear and workshops, as well as a special pair of undies to show that the pledger helped the team takeover Nisa. How did this campaign go so quick? They had a great crowd, some super comms in the lead up, and awesome rewards to keep people pledging once they hit their minimum.
Biggest crowd (project)
Over 2,500 pledged to Eat My Lunch in 2015, when they were less than three months old and still operating out of their founder’s home kitchen. Eat My Lunch offered a buy one/gift one model for lunches, with the aim of feeding kids lunches at school who wouldn’t have otherwise eaten midday. Read the case study to learn how they did it, here.
Largest project campaign
Pet Refuge provide temporary shelter and care for pets affected by domestic violence, keeping them safe while their owners escape abuse. They started with a PledgeMe campaign, raising $300,000 from 2,170 people. How did they do it? They had some great crowdsourced rewards from partners, some mainstream media ads, and a very passionate founder.
Largest equity campaign
Puro, a medical cannabis company based just outside of Kaikoura, raised $4 million in one campaign through their crowd. Since then, they have become New Zealand’s largest grower of medical cannabis and one of the world’s few accredited large-scale organic growers. How did they do it? They had a solid team, and some great comms about their plans.
Biggest crowd (equity)
The team behind Ocho activated the support of an entire community when they raised investment to buy a chocolate company and keep chocolate-making skills in Dunedin after Cadburies decided to shut down their factory. Over 3,500 people pledged to this campaign and got shares in return. Investors not only got shares in the company but also a 20% discount on chocolate for life. So those who put $100 into the company could buy $500 worth of chocolate and the discount would cover their initial investment!
How did they do it? They did a pre-pledging campaign and with some awesome media coverage had over $5million pre-pledged before they even went live. Read their case study here.
Quickest equity campaign to $2mil
When Waiapu Investments decided to raise investment to scale their medical cannabis company that aimed to provide opportunities and employment to young people on the East Coast, they broke the PledgeMe platform (twice). There were so many people interested in the kaupapa of the company (as well as the commercial opportunity) that they raised $2mil in ten minutes. How did they do it? Their team activated their local community by hosting events and talking at the local marae, as well as national interest.
Best return to investors
Founder Brianne West decided to raise $200,000 in investment for her solid shampoo bar company, then known as Sorbet, back in 2015. In two weeks she raised her goal, which helped her kit out her new factory which she’d recently moved into from her home kitchen. Her goal was to grow the company to a point where they’d stopped 1 million bottles from going to landfill by 2020. Over the next five years she grew the company and stopped over 6 million bottles from going to landfill, and when she sold the company in 2020 her initial investors through PledgeMe got a 48x return on their initial investment. Read the case study to learn how Brianne did it, here.
Most PledgeMe campaigns
Angel Food have run four successful campaigns! Founder Alice Shopland ran three equity campaigns and one project campaign. This shows how passionate the fans of this vegan cheese company truly are – backing this company to grow both here in Aotearoa, and now into Australia. With each campaign Alice was prepared with great collateral, and a supportive crowd. Read their case study here.
Most matched funding to a campaign (and most puns)
The Back the Bull campaign was a tour de force from the Christchurch Art Gallery, and their supporters, who wanted to keep the Michael Parakowhai sculpture that became well known by all Cantabrians in a post-earthquake city. The bull stood amongst the rubble, as some of the few art pieces open to the general public during the early days of the rebuild. So when they decided they wanted to keep the bull, Jo and her team decided to use puns, and matched funding, to achieve their goal. They managed to raise over $200,000, which was matched two ways by Westpac and the local city council. It was incredi-Bull.
