Xeelion is crowdfunding focused entirely on student entrepreneurs. In order to post a campaign on the platform, you need to have an .edu email account (similar to the early days of Facebook). Outside of campaign management/ownership, Xeelion will allow anyone to join as investors for the reward- and donation-based campaigns (Bancalà hopes to include equity-based campaigns, pending certain SEC requirements). Capital is important for any idea to take-off, but this access to capital is limited when you’re a college student. Currently, there’s Upstart, but that’s targeted at recent college grads looking for seed funding. What puts Xeelion in a strong position is its focus solely on scientific projects that meet their requirements for sustainability. (Yeah, that’s right – it’s not just for college students, but for college students with profitable, science-based ideas). According to Bancalà, the platform aims to look at high-growth/sustainable projects in fields like renewable energy, life science, cleantech, IT, health care, and medical hardware. While the platform has yet to launch (they hope to launch by mid-May), they’ve already recruited a few startups to plan campaigns on Xeelion. For example, there’s Not Alone, LLC, a startup founded by current Harvard student that is developing a GPS-enabled smart bracelet aimed at revolutionizing the security industry. By July 4th, the company hopes to start accepting crowdfunded investments.
