How Web3 and NFTs enable the community to engage with an organic egg farm and overcome market barrier for funding

We are proud to announce that Saaremaa Mahemuna has finished their NFT sale in cooperation with Ignium. Saaremaa Mahemuna’s example showcased that NFT’s can be used to resolve small company growth-funding needs and create much higher engagement than usual financial instruments.

Digikanad NFT Collection are not only cool looking pictures but also NFT’s that give financial return — 5% of Saaremaa Mahemuna’s future profit will be distributed among digital chicken owners. In addition, NFT holders will get access to different community driven decisions and participation.

Situation

▪️ Entire business was under urgent need of funding leaving founder the option of either a forced sale or the risk of insolvency;

▪️ Banks did not grant a loan;

▪️ The company needed 50,000 to 65,000 euros to invest into growth and product development.

About Client

Saaremaa Mahemuna is an organic egg farm in Saaremaa, Estonia. The farm was founded in 2019 and now has over 3,000 chickens.

The farm produces over 3,000 organic eggs per day, also a cool branded organic mayonnaise, both can be found in many stores and groceries across Estonia.

Brand became well known and quickly built a very engaged community around the high quality product. Saaremaa Mahemuna’s vision is to produce high quality organic food that is good for the environment, animals and people.

Goals

▪️ Raise the funding and save the farm;

▪️ Enable company’s community to become stakeholders and benefit from the future success of the farm;

▪️ Engage the community even further;

▪️ Reduce time and paperwork for the entire process;

▪️ Avoid dilution.

Process

First, the farm’s owner Tanel Tang made a post on Facebook to gauge the interest from the community. Interest by the community was overwhelming in the size of four times the capital needed by the company.

Next, Saaremaa Mahemuna onboarded to Ignium, designed the NFT (non-fungible tokens), defined the profit sharing terms and launched the sale via its Facebook page. Buyers, by using the link in the Facebook post, registered with Ignium, picked digital chicken from the gallery, created a wallet and made payment — all in one seamless ecommerce-like experience. Sale was completed quite fast — close to 65% of NFT’s were sold out in the first 24 hours.

Ignium product supported the client on all steps, including designing and minting of NFTs, registration and identification of the buyers, accepting and transferring of payments and settlement of NFTs sale.

Results

▪️ Company sold 650 digital chicken and raised the funding it needed — 65,000 euros;

▪️ Community was well engaged — many buyers were sharing their digital chicken in social media;

▪️ Broad-based engagement — 289 community members bought digital chicken;

▪️ Sale took total of 9 days, with no additional marketing efforts (whereas majority of NFTs were sold in the first day);

▪️ Effectively no paper-work for the company or the buyers;

▪️ No dilution for the existing shareholders.

“I am really excited about the result, we have achieved something extraordinary. NFTs have been issued through Ignium, all farm supporters have got an easy and interactive way to invest and now they are not only customers but the farm investors who will also benefit from the success of the business. It gives me a chance to make a stronger connection with the same nice people who take care of what I do. I believe that such a financing approach will help many small businesses that are doing the right thing.” says Saaremaa Mahemuna farm owner Tanel Tang.

“Web3 has brought the value of community building into the spotlight. NFT projects showcase the perfect intersection of mission and storytelling, community building and obtaining funding for that purpose. This all makes Web3 philosophy and NFTs to be a natural fit with our mission — Making capital available for small and medium sized businesses.

Saaremaa Mahemuna already has plenty of loyal customers who engage with the brand literally each day by breakfast and heavily interact and support each of their Facebook publications. So there were no doubts that Web 3 principles would suit here the most. “, says Reimo Hammerberg, Ignium CEO

About Ignium:

Ignium makes capital available to small companies by connecting them with communities.

Got any questions?

Contact Ignium and enable the fundraising with help of your own community now.

Book an introduction call: https://calendly.com/reimo/15min

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