{"id":44080,"date":"2023-10-20T15:33:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/melbourne-startup-buckitdream-secures-1-3-million-investment-from-investible-after-officially-launching-with-the-help-of-ellen-degeneres-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:33:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:33:18","slug":"melbourne-startup-buckitdream-secures-1-3-million-investment-from-investible-after-officially-launching-with-the-help-of-ellen-degeneres-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/melbourne-startup-buckitdream-secures-1-3-million-investment-from-investible-after-officially-launching-with-the-help-of-ellen-degeneres-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne startup BUCKiTDREAM secures $1.3 million investment from Investible after officially launching with the help of Ellen DeGeneres – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Melbourne startup BUCKiTDREAM has secured a $1.3 million ($US1 million) investment from member-based investment vehicle Investible as it looks to scale its dream fulfilment platform around the world.<\/p>\n

It brings the total investment in the platform, which allows users to create a bucket list and then connects them with merchants to achieve these dreams<\/a>, to $9.3 million ($US7 million).<\/p>\n

Investible co-founder and serial entrepreneur Trevor Folsom was previously a seed funder of the startup and then introduced Investible members to it, BUCKiTDREAM founder Tim Carroll says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stars aligned and Investible came and sat down with us and looked at where we\u2019re going and got pretty excited about it all,\u201d Carroll tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe presented to their private members and they unanimously said that let\u2019s invest in BUCKiTDREAM. To have exposure to 20-30 private investors all under the Investible umbrella was electric.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUCKiTDREAM completed a soft launch last year with a promotional video featuring high profile entrepreneur Richard Branson<\/a>, and launched globally with a little help from Ellen DeGeneres earlier this year.<\/p>\n

In April last year the Aussie-founded startup teamed up with the Ellen DeGeneres Show to allow one lucky winner the chance to play a game with the prominent talk-show host. Ellen then invited her viewers to join the platform and enter a competition to win $US20,000 in cash to make their wish come true.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The platform now has 100,000 users on the platform, with the \u201cbuying intention data\u201d they are providing via bucket lists creating lucrative opportunities for brands and advertisers, Carroll says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its simplicity we\u2019ve built a platform allowing consumers to create and fulfil dreams,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are creating 10,20 or 100 reams, and these dreams are not fuzzy, they\u2019re very specific future intention data and that\u2019s attracting big interest from US media, brands and merchants. Our ultimate destination is to build out a platform that connects dreamers with merchants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be making some major announcements over the next 12 months and the response by US media and brands has been fantastic \u2013 they love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUCKiTDREAM is now primarily based in the US, with Carroll making 50 trips to the US recently to help build it, but still has strong roots in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re a US corporation we are powered by Australian DNA,\u201d Carroll says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard for an Australian startup to go to America and have a crack, but we\u2019ve successfully done that and the validation we\u2019ve got for what we\u2019ve created and where we\u2019re going has been brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll says the goal has always been for the company to be global, and with the further investment it\u2019s ready to quickly expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided from day one we were going to be a global company,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an audacious vision but it\u2019s possible with hard work and persistence. A determination to realise our vision has got us to here and it\u2019s a very exciting stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite raising $US7 million to date, Carroll says he has been forced to reject large amounts of funding because the investor wasn\u2019t the right fit for the tech company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really do our own due diligence on the investor and we look for a fit, for the right behaviour and for a shared vision for what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to investment it\u2019s really important for entrepreneurs to do due diligence on prospective investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t get that level of comfort we reject the investor, and that surprises some people. There\u2019s been $2 million of prospective investment around the world that we\u2019ve rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne startup BUCKiTDREAM has secured a $1.3 million ($US1 million) investment from member-based investment vehicle Investible as it looks to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}