Company: Cofndrs
Website: https://www.cofndrs.com/
About Natasha & Cofndrs
London-based tech start-up Cofndrs, a customer-powered technology platform that enables companies and their customers to co-found and co-fund socially and environmentally conscious initiatives, was co-founded in 2018 by Natasha Malhorta and Richard Harries.
Operating within the fintech space, the Cofndrs platform allows companies to circumvent outdated, traditional financing options and instead harness the power of their customer base to generate forward sales to finance their next great initiative. Natasha, our nominee for this competition and COO at Cofndrs, has a wealth of experience working in leadership positions within the sector, having previously specialised in regulation, emerging technologies and AI in finance for 10 years, prior to launching Cofndrs. A true jack-of-all-trades, her role now involves overseeing the operations of the company, implementing strategy, being responsible for the governance of the business and bringing in new growth opportunities.
Because the Cofndrs proposition is so novel, getting it off the ground has come with its own unique set of challenges which Natasha and the team have worked tirelessly to overcome. Developing the back-end technology the platform is housed on, understanding and refining the proposition and carving out an entirely new market segment are just a few of the defining challenges Cofndrs has faced in order to get the proposition from its concept phase to where it is today; an innovative platform that brands can utilise to not only to raise financing, but also accelerate their customer engagement and acquisition, enhance their brand, and enable innovative marketing, sales and new product development.
With more and more purpose-led clients joining the platform, Natasha and the Cofndrs team have proven the technology underlying the platform works. Nevertheless, they still have ambitious goals to continue innovating – made possible through a successful investment round which saw £550,000 fed into the business. The funds will be used to optimise efficiency of the platform by automating many of its processes and therefore enhancing the architecture for scale whilst reducing operational costs.
Known for her agile strategic approach, Natasha won’t be afraid of experimenting when it comes to growing the business in the years to come, believing that the only way to truly innovate is to keep learning and pivoting, with moments of apparent ‘failure’ strengthening the business rather than hindering it!
