The People’s Fund

About 

The People’s Fund is a purchase order crowdfunding platform for businesses that have orders with the government and corporations and are looking for capital to complete the order. 

For businesses with a signed contract for a large order, but don’t have the finance to purchase the supplies or finance for the resources to complete the work, purchase order funding is a good option.

All of The People’s Fund’s capital is crowdfunded by ordinary people and potential investors can invest on the website. The maximum funding amount is R1 million per deal. 

See also: A Guide to Crowdfunding in South Africa

Features 

Type of funding – The People’s Fund uses the royalty-based model which allows business owners to retain equity. Backers get a small percentage of the profits from successful deals. 

Qualifying criteria – The platform can fund businesses in all industries as long as the deal can be done and paid back in 60 days. Because of the 60-day timeline, construction businesses may not be eligible unless the deal is for small-scale construction projects that can be executed quickly (e.g. renovations).

Unlike traditional lenders, they do not conduct a general affordability assessment which includes credit checks, financials and statements of assets and liabilities. But they do require 6-month bank statements to show trading history.

Their strictest requirement is that the purchase order has to have a large enough margin (at least 20%) for them to finance it (unless your purchase order is for R50 000 and less). Businesses also need to be 51% black-owned, however, this requirement has been relaxed for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis. Any company providing an essential service can access funding from The People’s Fund.

Application process –The application process is completely digital and they can approve your application directly on our platform if you provide the relevant documents.

Once approved they pay suppliers directly and ensure delivery of goods to your client.  It can take us 2-5 days to process applications for approval. 

Pricing

Depending on the margin of the deal, they charge a facilitation fee of 6% of the total purchase order value (plus VAT). If the total purchase order value is less than R50,000, they charge a flat rate of R3,000 (plus VAT) to facilitate the capital needed to execute the purchase order. 

Applicants will also be charged a R1 600 membership fee for The People’s Fund Stokvel which they are required to join once approved for funding. 

Pros 

They do not conduct a general affordability assessment. 

Cons

They do not fund startups.