bcause is a mission-driven startup. Our founding team brings extensive entrepreneurial and leadership experience from foundations, social organizations, financial service providers, and startups: Felix Oldenburg (previously CEO Ashoka, CEO Association of German Foundations, Chair European Philanthropy Associations Network), Susanna Krüger (previously CEO Save the Children DE), Nicole Weyde (previously head of legal at PayPal and Groupon DE), Sven Tantau (previously CTO at nebenan.de) currently lead a team of 10 based in Berlin.

We are funded by over thirty individuals who support our mission to mobilize more private capital to solve urgent problems. >1,000 early users create a trust base among next generation members of family businesses, blue chip executives, as well as the creative and digital economies.

The bcause depot makes all financing easy because the money you deposit is securely held in a charitable trust. From there, only carefully vetted organizations are funded.

For you, this proven model means: no paperwork, bureaucracy, and legal hassle. Instead, you have the full functionality of a foundation, and tax deductible donation receipts.

During the current development phase, using bcause is completely free. In order to maintain this for as many people as possible for as long as possible, you can make voluntary donations.

Starting a foundation usually involves lawyers, tax consultants, bureaucracy, and results in a standalone legal entity that produces ongoing costs and inflexible rules for the use of funds. As a result, philanthropy not only underperforms its true market potential but retreats into a niche, losing significance and legitimacy.

We believe that in order to fund innovative solutions, we need to unlock the broad scale potential of philanthropy and impact investing. bcause democratises the foundation model, and thus not only breaks down unnecessary barriers but also allows for ideas and capital to meet on new terms. We would like for everyone to be a philanthropist.

We started the company in April 2021, and launched a first product in May 2022. Since then, we have built a portfolio of 200+ high-impact organisations to be financed, reached 500+ users with an invite-only strategy, processed 1k+ transactions with an average amount of €4,000, and won initial awards and a lot of media recognition. Initially, we are focused on the German-speaking markets but bcause can already be used from any geography. We know this is a long road, and we invite additional investors and partners to join us!