• GiveForward Raises $500K To Be The Kickstarter For Medical Expenses

    Leena Rao

    Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

    Monday, February 14th, 2011

    GiveForward, an online fundraising tool for medical expenses, has raised $500,000 in funding from Tim Krauskopf, New World Ventures, David Cohen, Ed Chandler, Social Leverage and Excelerate Labs.

    GiveForward, which was incubated in Chicago’s Excelerate Labs, wants to become the Kickstarter for medical expenses. The platform allows anyone to create customizable fundraising pages where friends and family from across the world can donate online.

    To make money, GiveForward deducts 7 percent of all donations. Since 2008, 10,000 users have joined GiveForward with the startup helping families raise nearly $3.5 million for their loved ones’ out-of-pocket medical expenses. GiveForward also gives users tips on fundraising, allows them to socialize their pages on Facebook and Twitter and more.

    Company: Excelerate Labs
    Launch Date: 2010

    Excelerate Labs is an intensive summer accelerator for startups driven by proven entrepreneurs and investors. Led by world class entrepreneurs Sam Yagan (OKCupid, Sparknotes) and Troy Henikoff (SurePayroll), the program is unique in attracting scores of mentors from around the country to work with the teams in direct 1-on-1 meetings. The program selects ten companies every spring to participate in the 13-week intensive summer program. Starting in early June, the ten companies build connections and their business during the program....

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