If you have a social life that’s even remotely active, you probably encounter the problem of collecting money from a group of people a few times a year. Whether it’s a whip-round for a birthday gift or collecting means for a homecoming ball, the problems – disorganization, sending off multiple reminders – remain essentially the same. Zrzutka.pl is a portal that allows you to collect money in an easy and effortless way instead.
“It all started when I was trying to buy a license for website prototyping software,” said Tomasz Chołast, the founder of zrzutka.pl. “If you bought five at once, you could get a discount, but my company didn’t need five licenses. I started looking for other prospective buyers and while some people organized such purchases on forums, I quickly discovered that these transactions looked suspicious and lacked transparency. I decided to build a platform that would be safe, transparent and simple.”
Creating a new project on zrzutka.pl is a matter of seconds. Once you give it a name and goal (for example $1000) and determine whether it’s public or private, you are ready to go. Every project generates its own bank account, so you, the organizer, don’t have to keep all money at your private account. The platform is commission-free, and all money transfers are free of charge. After you reach your goal, you can transfer collected funds to your own account and withdraw them.
This platform is different than Kickstarter or Indiegogo, as the procedure of creating a project is much simpler. Additionally, while these platforms focus on reward crowdfunding, zrzutka.pl is targeted to low-key donation-based projects such as buying a birthday gift, organizing a holiday trip or paying rent in a shared flat.
A surprisingly large percentage of projects are donations for those in need – for example, for financing costly surgeries or for animal shelters. The team opened an additional portal, pomagam.zrzutka.pl, dedicated to this type of projects. Most notable example from the last weeks is a Christmas whip-round for an old woman who was fined for selling breadrolls on the street. The original goal of 100k zł was reached during 24 hours.
Tomasz Chołast, the CEO of zrzutka.pl, previously worked in the event industry, where he promoted the largest hip-hop festival in Czech Republic. He has also gained experience in creating smart TV applications and introduced a Polish marketing tool (Brand24) to Indonesia. Krzysztof Ilnicki, the co-founder, is a young developer and the main architect of zrzutka.pl.
Zrzutka.pl is the crowdfunding platform with the highest growth speed in Poland. The portal handles 400k unique visitors a month. Until today, the transaction volume reached 17 mln zł (about 3.8 mln euro), and the number of registered users exceeded 120k. The company has recently reached a breakeven point and plans to introduce numerous new features, including recurring payments or a mobile app. The team also intends to open versions of their portal in other countries, including France, Germany, UK, Russia and Indonesia.
