On October 26th 2020, Toronto-based Hopeful Inc., the digital storytelling company that is empowering nonprofit organizations to maximize their social media impact with the power of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and donor-specific insights, announced that it has successfully secured a US$105k investment. The funding was led by UC Berkeley SkyDeck, a top global accelerator that funds Berkeley and international startups.
Hopeful Inc. was one of the 16 startups that were chosen out of 1850 applicants from all over the world to be a part of a growth-driven community supported by VCs and Partners from Silicon Valley and globally. The company plans to use the proceeds from the funding to aggressively advance its product development and fundraising efforts. The investment creates a remarkable year for Hopeful Inc. and brings them one step closer to achieving their goal of equipping nonprofits with the technology required to deliver unrivaled impact by using data-driven insights to tell compelling stories that reduce costs and increase donations.
“Our admission into Berkeley SkyDeck only further confirms that the Nonprofit technology space is a new, huge frontier for aspiring impact entrepreneurs. With the resources SkyDeck provides, I’m tremendously excited to see Hopeful take it to the next level and build our most advanced technologies for our nonprofit clients,” says Alexander Jivov, CEO and Co-founder, Hopeful Inc.
UC Berkeley SkyDeck has been a phenomenal accelerator program for startups all over the world. Since 2012, they have been primarily investing in early-stage startups, and have acquired more than US$1.2 billion in funding, raised 25 Series A and B rounds and achieved 11 successful exits through acquisition. With a 1% acceptance rate, receiving the UC Berkeley SkyDeck develops tremendous recognition and confidence in Hopeful Inc.’s platform.
“Skydeck gives us a vast network of global investors and advisors, using which we are going to build a world class technology company for non profits. Raising funds during a pandemic has proven that there is a need for an agile and high tech company in non profit space. We are going to make the most of our lean and fast moving culture to solve the problems nonprofits face today.This funding will act as an accelerator for our technology roadmap and we are looking to enhance our data science and machine learning capabilities,” says Ahsan Javed, CTO and Co-founder, Hopeful Inc.
Hopeful Inc. has been successfully empowering nonprofit organizations to transform their social media initiatives by providing a machine learning analytics platform to analyze trends, monitor engagement, and create tailored campaigns to accelerate digital donations through data-driven decisions. The company’s purpose is to help nonprofits establish a donation engine powered by social media actions that keep their hope alive to deliver the impact that will shape the future of our world.
