South African startup The Social Vibe (TSV), a marketing platform for showcasing innovation through banner advertising, has unveiled the second part of its monetisation strategy by saying it wants to establish itself as a “middleman” connecting startups with investors.
Disrupt Africa reported in April on the launch of the The Social Vibe by Grant Vanderwagen and Elizabeth Crockett. The platform showcases businesses, startups, brands and services through banner sliders on its homepage, while also pushing brands through its marketing strategy and online network.
Vanderwagen told Disrupt Africa the platform already had brands paying to showcase, and was reaching viewers in 64 countries, with 5,500 page views per month. TSV is now working on the second part of its monetisation strategy, building a list of investors that it can connect to showcasing startups seeking funding. Vanderwagen plans to take a small percentage cut of any funding obtained through a TSV introduction.
“What we’re trying to focus on now is creating a private investor list, to make us the link between innovation and funding. We want to have investors on our site so that when a brand showcases that needs funding, we can approach the investors that we have,” he said.
A few investors from South Africa and overseas are already on the list, with Vanderwagen and Crockett working hard on building it up.
“We want to assist brands that are looking for funding. We want to help them find the right investor. We want to be the middleman between the entrepreneur and the investor,” Vanderwagen said.
“It is pretty cool for us and it is also pretty intense.”
