I had the pleasure of attending the NESTA event “Platform Cooperatives And The Capital Conundrum” that celebrated the publication of a report with the same title. The biggest announcement of the report was the launch of a Platform Cooperative Fund with the goal of raising £1,000,000. The fund seeks to attract funding, particularly from institutional social investors, and will provide initial funding for platform cooperatives to get them through the early, pre-trading “valley of death” until they start generating a revenue and raise investment from their users. Once profitable, the platform cooperatives will pay back the investors, perhaps with a small profit, and gather capital from their members from then on. The first platform coop to receive funding will be the Equal Care Coop, which is building a multi-stakeholder social care cooperative owned by both the givers and receivers of care. The panel discussion also included Kat Five from Resonate, a platform coop alternative to Spotify co-owned by musicians and listeners (I'm a member of Resonate and warmly recommend everyone else to join as well).
Read the rest at Co-op Exchange
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