Helping People Raise Money Easily
On the company’s relevance a decade from now: ImpactGuru.com is already India’s leading crowdfunding platform and helps people raise funds for healthcare and also for social change and creative projects. The Indian population is set to boom further in the next decade, and healthcare will continue to remain largely aloof; we don’t really hope for universal health coverage for all residents by that time.
On the future of the business: Crowdfunding is an internet-enabled philanthropic process. By 2030, there will be 1.2 billion smartphone users in India and most of those people will be under 30, and likely to either need crowdfunding solutions (particularly for healthcare), or know someone directly or by one or two degrees of social separation, who will run a campaign. The tech revolution and internet penetration will make crowdfunding accessible, so I see a sharply increasingly relevance for crowdfunding platforms.
On the importance of AI and blockchain to the business: We firmly believe in moving in step with technology innovations and incorporating them into our product and service. We have started using AI solutions, with a chatbot on our ‘Start a fundraiser’ and ‘How Crowdfunding Works’ pages to generate leads round the clock. Also, we have built an AI-supported story-builder for medical fundraisers, with a template for all customers to develop their own standardised campaign stories.
On direct and indirect wealth creation: Our chief resource is our donor base, and we take its growth and development very seriously. This means we are channeling their money to areas of human life identified and demonstrated as having deep financial need.
On employment opportunities: Technology makes a very good enabler, but we haven’t reached the point here it can completely replace the role of human intelligence. We continue to work with people who ideate and strategise and develop our business and solve problems creatively on a day to day.
