Over the past several years, crowdfunding has absolutely taken off. In 2015, the industry was valued at $35 billion, and its currently on track to hit $1trillion within the next ten years! That being said, existing platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo charge insanely high fees and are highly selective in terms of the projects they approve. On top of that, they also shut out a whole slew of countries, mainly due to their economic status. This leaves developing countries and their potential entrepreneurs out in the dust, without the means to participate in the crowd-funding economy due to factors outside their control.

That’s where Acorn Collective comes in!

The Acorn Collective is on a mission to create an inclusive crowdfunding platform for everyone. They’ll be the worlds first completely free crowdfunding platform (that’s right, no fees), and they’ll accept any legal project from anywhere in the world. They’re determined to overcome the many obstacles that currently exist in the crowdfunding industry today, such as high fees, the need to have an existing budget, and the fact that payments can get canceled and your project might not even get funded! Acorn Collective wants to promote social enterprise and democratize access to funding, as crowdfunding has already done successfully in developed countries.

By utilizing blockchain technology, Acorn Collective will virtually eliminate all payment fees (which are usually 3-5% on other platforms). Due to their utilization of the ICO model, they can make crowdfunding free. In short, they’re revolutionizing the crowdfunding industry, by crowdfunding it!

“One of the beauties of a cryptocurrency is how it enables a shared global ecosystem for so many interactions, and opens things up in places where systems are less developed.” – David Ives, Advisor to Acorn Collective, Former CTO of Crowdcube

The Acorn Eco-System

The Acorn eco-system is comprised of several elements. The first of which is the crowdfunding hub, which is called the Acorn Hub. This is the centerpiece of the OAK ecosystem, and this is where founders will create their crowdfunding campaigns. Backers will use Acorn Collective’s ERC-20 token OAK to fund these campaigns in exchange for future rewards (and possibly equity). Per their whitepaper, “In effect, we leave it up to the community and its collective wisdom to decide which projects are worthy of their support.”

Acorn works just as well for smaller, local projects as it does for huge consumer products! In terms of getting approved, a short, yet robust screening process takes place to analyze project’s compliance. Two moderators will perform the initial check, and any prohibited projects will be flagged for further review. This includes scrutiny by legal experts, as well as an ethics board. Any legal, yet ethically questionable projects will be reviewed by the board, and if still undecided, be left up to a community vote.

The second component is the Acorn Marketplace, which serves to bridge the gap between the campaign and its future profitability. The marketplace will be free to use for Acorn founders and will provide them with an instantly visible platform to sell their post-crowdfunding goods and services. Payment will be accepted in either fiat or OAK tokens.

Next up is their point of sale payment app, Acorn Local, which will allow consumers, retailers, and suppliers to transact using the OAK token. They want the Acorn platform to have a real, positive impact on the local economies and developing countries they operate in.This app gives backers and founders an added utility for tokens and the advantage of secure currency exchange.

In addition, Acorn will have a Project Incentive Fund to reward early adopters of the platform, including founders and backers alike. For Founders, some examples of incentives are:

Match funding 1:1 (up to a certain figure), to double the funding for each project.
Provide an initial percentage of the intended raise below the minimum funding
threshold (e.g. 20-50%).
Provide generous startup funding to attract serious project founders, but in exchange
for equity. Startup funding can only take place if done alongside a crowdfunding
campaign on our platform and will be at our discretion.
Backers will be incentivized by the use of an affiliate rewards program, as well as distributing bonus OAK to early project backers for them to spend on other projects.

The OAK token will also have immediate liquidity post ICO, due to their partnership with the Bancor exchange. They are currently in the midst of their Pre-Sale phase for their token sale, which runs through February 19th, with tokens for sale at a 50% discount (.70 cents in USD). Their main ICO sale will run from March-April, with tokens sold for $1.40. The platform itself will launch during Q2-Q3 of 2018.