Mercury, a financial technology company, has opened up a chance for early-stage startups to raise their “first check.”
Mercury will be offering up to $15,000 to three startups, after a series of stages, which includes community voting. Mercury encourage Founders who are “committed to the problem they are solving but haven’t raised funding from VCs or angel investors yet,” to apply for the chance to raise funds to support their ideas.
For companies to participate in the program, Mercury expects that such company should:
- Have strong founders, a preview of their product (like a website, a mock-up, a product deck, or an actual demo), and plans to work on their idea full-time.
- Have a compelling story and a well-defined strategy to get to the next level.
At the end of the initial stage, finalists will be chosen, and subjected to community voting. Three startups will then be chosen through community voting.
Mercury believe that community voting is important because “many successful startups were built on community support, and community voting can be a fun way for more people to review companies and provide their insights — all with a bit of friendly competition.”
While the top 3 companies with the highest votes will get $15,000, all the finalists will be promoted on Mercury’s website, and their works and information will be exposed to Mercury’s list of investors, opening the companies to prospective investments.
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The $15,000 Mercury investment will be made via a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) note, and following a Y Combinator-like agreement.
“Mercury will invest $15K via a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) note. We will use the same agreement as Y Combinator. This includes a Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause, with no valuation cap and no discount. This means we will receive the same rights and benefits as subsequent investors if they receive better rights or benefits in future rounds.”
Application is expected to be completed by the 1st of July, 2022.
Click here to apply.