Thrive (now known as Thriday) is a financial technology startup based in Melbourne, who at the time of their Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) campaign were in the pre-launch phase of product development.
Their product? A single, all-encompassing application that would automate and improve financial management for small-medium enterprises – like a CFO that fits in your pocket.
Using artificial intelligence, their single centralised business account has the ability to automate banking, accounting, invoicing, tax and lending, saving businesses an immense amount of time and effort.
With 7,500 businesses already on their waitlist and a $57 billion opportunity prime for disruption, Thrive geared up to launch an Equity Crowdfunding campaign on Birchal, an Australian platform giving investors the opportunity to support the brands and ideas they love.
Thrive came to Glide during the tricky pre-product startup stage: they had a concept, but a tangible product was a way down the track.
They needed a campaign that would effectively communicate their vision and the market potential of their product, as well as demonstrating to investors that this was an opportunity too good to miss.
To help them hit their target of $3m, they enlisted Glide to coordinate their strategy and digital marketing over the course of their campaign.
With 7,500 businesses already waiting, this raise was needed to deliver the capital required for what was fast becoming a highly anticipated platform, and in turn help them navigate the turbulent pre-launch, pre-revenue phase that’s too often a downfall for startups.
The EOI period is a crucial phase (3-4 weeks) designed to generate submissions from potential investors.
We focused on separating potential investors into a wide range of groups and subgroups. Identifying key characteristics, interests and personas allowed us to effectively target our audiences and tailor our messaging to each.
By A/B testing a wide range of copy, creative assets, USPs and value propositions, our advertising generated over 800 total EOI’s.
Fundamental to this success was our understanding of the true potential of Thrive’s idea. In doing so we took a relatively complex concept – an ‘automated artificial-intelligence financial management application’ – and crafted a universally understandable idea with a clear, realistic value, thus lowering the barrier to entry for potential investors.
Following the overwhelming success of Thrive’s EOI period, we opened their investment round to a score of incredibly enthusiastic investors, chomping at the bit to get a piece of Australia’s newest fintech.
What followed was an outpouring of support that saw records thrashed in a matter of hours, then days.
The investment window was set to span 28 days – Thrive would only need 3.
It took just THREE hours for Thrive to surpass their minimum $1.5 million, and after three hugely successful days, they landed at their maximum $3 million target – a new record for Australia, Birchal, and for Glide.
Facebook continues to prove itself to be a powerhouse of a platform with respect to crowdfunding and investment campaigns, especially as interest in start up investment continues to grow.
In the end, we were able to generate 511 investors and generate $3 million over the course of Thrive’s campaign – making it another Equity Crowdfunding success for Glide.
