POLEN: mobile app that transforms pictures into donations

• THE IDEA

  PRODUCTS & SERVICES

  Polen Photos transforms pictures into donations. Making campaigns between companies and charities, Polen allows the user to help a charity they like with one picture and not having to spend a penny for it. Made thinking about the user, Polen pictures is an intuitive and easy to use mobile app. The MVP version is available in android and Portuguese.
  The steps for the user are very simple:
  1 – Choose a campaign to help
  2 – Take a picture
  3- Select a sticker to decorate the picture
  4- Share!

  Each sticker in the pictures contains the company and the charity logo, this way we can involve customers into companies cause marketing campaigns in a very cost effective way.

  PROBLEM SOLVED

  – “Donations from under-30s fallen from 8% to 3% from 1980 to 2010” – CAF June 2014
  The way charities raise money is out of touch with the way young people and corporations wish to engage with social action.

  – “94% of global consumers are likely to change from a brand to another that is associated with a good cause” – Cone Communications / ECHO Global CSR Study

  Corporate Social Responsibility is becoming more important every day, businesses need to have a bigger purpose other than profits, but taking such action is expensive for companies and the results are difficult to measure.

  REVENUE MODEL

  Our revenue model makes us the first picture app that monetises from every picture taken.The company and the charity set everything up before the campaign is live, deciding how much the donation is going to be and how much every picture is going to give.
  When the campaign is over, the company makes a direct donation to the charity and pays Polen a 20% commission on top of that, making this solution free for charities, free for people and even tax deductible for companies.
  We are also implementing the possibility of the user donating directly from the app, sponsoring his/her own picture. We offer promoting services for the company and the charity,that can be charged in the future as well.

  EXIT STRATEGY

  We plan another two rounds of investment series A and B to scale our operation though all America and Europe by the end of 2018. As we just started to operate in England, we don’t have a clear exit strategy yet, we focus on growing the business. But, potential acquisitions could come from fundraising companies or pictures or social media companies like Instagram and Facebook.

Source: ICNW