Richmond crowdfunding platform Round Here launched in February with two community-minded companies — Team Excel Inc., which offers educational support for secondary schools and students, and equalityMD, an app for LGBTQ+ patients and mental health providers. Both are software startups headquartered in Richmond.
Round Here founder and CEO Christopher Gatewood, along with software developer Michael Lamberson, felt these two companies were “well the on way to meet their missions,” making them ideal for the platform.
Gatewood, an intellectual property lawyer for startups, said he started Round Here because he saw the differences in funding levels across companies, leading some to grow while others were left behind.
“The platform itself can accommodate real estate, food and beverage, personal services or Main Street mom-and-pop businesses — any kind of company that is not on a stock exchange, which is the vast number of companies but want to advertise and solicit investments including investments at $100, $500 or $1,000,” said Gatewood.
Gatewood said what sets Round Here apart from other crowdfunding platforms it wants to be more hands-on and supportive to help founders manage their funding strategy.
Round Here charges a listing fee of between $1,700 and $3,000 with a $1,000 baseline plus 2% cut of the minimum amount companies raise, as well as some other fees. Gatewood declined to say specifically how much was spent on building and launching the platform. Round Here will also review content placed on the platform, Securities and Exchange Commission filings from listed companies and make other efforts to ensure funding campaigns are successful.
He said bigger crowdfunding platforms are not as willing or able to talk things through, but if founders need some guidance while working through the Round Here platform, it’s available.
“It’s a flexible platform that can match investment opportunity,” Gatewood said. “Most people are not wealthy enough to participate in traditional startups as investors. [Round Here allows people] to take advantage of those big-growth opportunities and allow access to funding that these companies who may not have a rich aunt or uncle to invest six figures based on an existing relationship but do have a project and are solving a problem and to have a community that will support them a few hundred or thousand dollars at a time.”
By focusing their crowdfunding effort on Round Here, businesses can advertise the campaign, push it out on social channels or send email blasts.
Gatewood wants the Richmond innovation economy to know Round Here is available to talk and that it’s a doorway to capital for companies that need it. It is also a way for the community to support small companies with affordable amounts of investment and potentially participate in high growth interest, he said.