From the Governor’s Cup to a successful Series A round to creating jobs — that’s been the entrepreneurial path for Devan Twyman, CEO of RaiseMore, over the last five years.
Oklahoma City-based RaiseMore provides an interactive fundraising platform for organizations to allow their event participants, friends, family and supporters to interact during a fundraising event, share encouragements and photos, and even make and receive donations.
In January, RaiseMore closed a $500,000 Series A round. The equity investment will help the company expand technology, infrastructure, and critical hires.
“This investment came about through a lot of hard work and relationships that we built while we were in the VentureSpur accelerator program,” Twyman says. “In Oklahoma, you rely on your contacts and your relationships. We were able to find investors who believed in our team and in what we are doing. RaiseMore will benefit not only from the investment, but from the mentoring.”
For Twyman, it’s all about being an Oklahoman and starting and growing a company in our state.
“We are excited this investment is coming from Oklahoma,” she says. “We had been talking with investors from out of state, and quite often the question came up, ‘are you willing to move.’ That isn’t something we wanted to do. We want to show that an entrepreneur can start up a technology company here in Oklahoma and find great resources to expand within this community.”
Nearly all net new job creation comes from startup companies, and RaiseMore is adding to that statistic. The company is looking to to hire a developer as well as an industry expert with hands-on experience in RaiseMore’s target market, the non-profit arena.
“We are building a phenomenal team,” Twyman says. “Now it’s up to us to execute. For the last six months, nearly all my time was in fund raising. Now my two goals are product innovation and marketing. I’m spending most of my time working with clients.”
Twyman, who has a niece who was born with Down Syndrome, understands first-hand the value of connecting supporters, donors, and families.
“The thing that is most fulfilling,” she says, “is to see the value that these organizations can capture from our services. It goes back to the way I feel about my niece. Not only are we able to help one person, but at the organization level, we can help thousands of people through our technology. Now that’s fulfillment.”
Finding that balance between social fulfillment and a profitable concept can be difficult but we think RaiseMore may be on to something.
