Crowd-funding for local rock band through Zoomaal site

Mashru3 Leila gets $67,000 for new album

Zoomaal, a crowd-funding platform for the Arab world, raised $67,000 for their new album ‘Raasuk’ (You’ve Been Choreographed) by Mashru3 Leila, a local Arabic rock band.

The platform is a community financing platform addressed to Middle East ‘creatives’. It mainly finances ventures that require $5,000 or less, from over 19 categories ranging from art and film to invention and technology projects. Budgets can go up depending on each project.

Abdallah Absi, CEO and founder of Zoomaal, said that they approached Mashru3 Leila because their style is very compatible with the platform’s objectives. “Mashru3 Leila are the biggest starters with us, and having them on our platform is a great added value.” The project’s creativity made it eligible for crowd-funding.

Mashru3 Leila was listing on Zoomaal during 38 days, and managed to secure $67,000 from 544 contributors, mostly in the $50-$100 category. Depending on the contributed amount, donors were entitled to gifts that included tickets, backstage passes, CDs, and other benefits. In turn, the platform benefits from five percent of the secured funding.

Zoomaal will soon announce a $5,000 competition to support creativity, in collaboration with Hivos, a Dutch organization. The competition will run throughout October. All projects on platform during this phase are eligible.

Following the model pioneered by Kickstarter in the US, Zoomal targets projects with a very defined scope. It offers a donation-based model where contributors are rewarded with gifts or privileges, as opposed to crowd-sourced equity investment.

Zoomaal was founded in 2012 and officially launched its website last July. The platform is financed by four capital funds: MEVP (Lebanon), Wamda (UAE), Sawari Ventures (Egypt), and N2V (joint Saudi and Jordanian venture).