The Winschoten-based social startup Opakeco Foundation has a vision: a world where humanitarian causes are fully transparent and held accountable.
The foundation thinks that with the advent of the blockchain the technology is finally there to realise this vision. Using the blockchain and ethereum smart contracts as its technology backbone the startup is building a platform that enables the achievement of complete transparency.
The Opakeco platform functions on the basis of “Karmo” tokens that can be bought. Token holders can exert control over the foundation and support charities. In other words, supports don’t only know where the money transfer lands. They can also hold the foundation accountable by getting a complete view of the inner-workings of Opakeco. The speed of the money transfer is another added value of using blockchain based cryptocurrency, especially in case of emergency and disaster relief.
Opakeco will enable users to communicate with different charities and verified donor’s. The platform will let you see to what extent a certain donor or charity is accountable and transparent.
“We really think the world is ready for transparency, we think it’s actually necessary,” states Akash Parmesar, CEO and co-founder of Opakeco. Referring to the fact that currently there are still 700 million people around the world living in extreme poverty and only 15-20 % donations actually get to people it’s was intended for.
The startup is founded by Parmesar, Akis Karamanlis (CMO), Jackie Xu (CTO) and Rene Ammerlaan (CIO). Officially registered as foundation in July Opakeco has as a concept been in the workings for many years. “The foundation has several years of planning in it. I have been working on this goal for approximately 3 to 4 years now,” says Xu to StartupJuncture. “It has had multiple avenues of execution, a few which hit legal boundaries with regards to securities and SEC-typical regulations.”
Opakeco hopes to eventually become the quality label for measuring the transparency of charities and well-doers. It plans to raise funding for its platform via a so-called ICO or Initial Coin Offering on September 1. “Our ICO, will release funds on a quarterly basis. We expect to be able to fund the platform with these funds at least 4 years,” says Parmesar. “According to our own financial forecast, we will reach a break-even in the first quarter of the second year. So the extra funds gives us the option to expand our team even further and add more features.”