May — Engineering Update
It has been a busy month for our Engineering team — and we’ve seen many new features, functions and tools released.
We continually enhance the platform and rollout now features for both the Investors and the Brands and Startups that use the platform. Here’s some of the things we rolled out in April ‘18
Investors — Introducing Direct Debit as a payment method
We did this because we received feedback from both investors and the companies that people were not logging into their bank to transfer funds or they were making mistakes that caused delays to reconciliation.
The Direct Debit payment method will allow the investor to stay on the Birchal website and complete the process in one go.
Investors now select the Direct Debit and provide their bank details. This authorises Birchal and our payment service (Assembly Payments) to collect the funds for their investment and store these in the Birchal Trust account.
Birchal will collect the funds within a few business days.
Social Authentication — for all new members
We now make it easier for new members to login to Birchal with their social profiles (includes Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Google).
And our new members have proven that they prefer this method of signup — particularly when they register an EOI or make an investment.
Note: we ONLY collect the first name, last name, email and profile pic for use on birchal.com
Social & Analytics Integration — for companies
All companies and brands profiled on Birchal love to learn where their traffic is coming from and Birchal is completely transparent about this.
Google Analytics
Companies can find out the source of their traffic and referrals — and guides them
Facebook/Instagram
Social media is a key marketing channel for consumer companies — however it has become a much more expensive channel to access. We’ve learned that this is a key channel for companies to engage with potential investors — so we want to ensure that companies are not burning (investors) cash by accessing the wrong audiences.
Birchal companies profiled can now build audiences on Birchal and collect data to better understand the audiences that their brand resonates with.
This platform has now reached a critical mass and has increased their member base to 500 million plus. Apparently, they have also doubled their MAU since Mircosoft took it over.
Similarly to the Facebook integration, Birchal companies profiled can collect data on the impact of using Linkedin for marketing and promotion. We hope to explore this channel with paid advertising — particularly with new campaigns.
Referrals - recognising the people that spread the word
We featured this on the blog during April — and we continue to Beta test this new feature. Version 2 will be coming soon
See more details here:
https://blog.birchal.com/introducing-referrals-to-company-profiles-542265d7d365
Partners — Showcasing the our partner network
We launched our Partner Network publicly — and we now facilitate a introduction to the companies / firms and people that are up to speed with Equity Crowdfunding and have promised to make their services accessible to the brands and startups that want to access the newly regulated industry.
Checkout all our Partners here
More info here:
Quick Follow — for brand profiles
Companies and brands can now add a Quick Follow popup message to their profile and alert users with an update — that also allows potential investors to quickly provide their email and subscribe to the ongoing companys’ activity feed and weekly digest email.
The popup appears after 5 seconds.
