Website where you can just click and collect

Achille Traore, a tenant at the Leeds Digital Hub, has launched a new platform called Swoosch.

The website allows people to create a fund page similar to Just Giving and crowd funding platforms, except Swoosch is a semi-private platform for people to collect money for social events such as stag and hen parties.

Mr Traore, founder of Top Screen Media, said: “The inspiration for the idea came when I was organising a stag do for a friend of mine. It was an absolute nightmare to organise the trip between 15 people – where we’d be staying, activities.”

Being “digitally minded”, Mr Traore had a look online to see if there were any platforms which he could use to collect money for the stag do.

“I realised that there is not much out there that would solve this very common problem of collecting and managing money in a group,” Mr Traore told The Yorkshire Post.

A year on and the entrepreneur has launched Swoosch. Mr Traore spent six months developing the platform.

Simplicity and security were the two big challenges when developing Swoosch.

Mr Traore said: “We’ve designed it in a way and made it so easy to use that people don’t get confused.

“I’ll give you an example. If Facebook launched today and it looked like it does now they would not have the same adaptation because it’s so busy.

“It’s important to get a really stripped back and simple interface. Doing one thing but doing one thing really, really well –rather than trying to attempt too many things.

“The sole purpose of this is to collect money for social occasions.”

He added that there are many applicable uses for Swoosch and that it could even be used to collect money for charitable causes and crowdfunding for business projects. There is no limit to the amount that can be raised, he added.

Top Screen Media, which began life in 2009 creating kiosks for ticket purchases in the sports industry, charges two per cent with a further two per cent card processing fee, the only costs for users to collect money on Swoosch.

Rather than the money going into a client account, it is stored in a e-wallet, the founder of Top Screen Media said.

Mr Traore added: “It’s a fully secure platform as well. It’s not just like a payment gateway we build in-house.

“It’s a fully secure payment gateway with full KYC approval – it’s the bank standard – so it’s the highest level of security.”

Amongst the uses he envisages for Swoosch are office collections – for leaving presents, promotions and birthdays.

Mr Traore said: “Everyone knows how annoying it is. People having to walk around with an envelope to collect money for somebody’s leaving party.

“Things have moved on. I never carry cash myself. It would solve a problem for me. I could just click on the link and make a payment instantly.”

With technological developments, Mr Traore believes more and more people are leaning towards cashless forms of payment.

Mr Traore says the market that Swoosch is going to be most popular with is 20 to 35-year-old females.

“It’s a great target audience because there’s a lot of things happening in their lives at this time – weddings, hen dos, christenings,” he said.

Top Screen Media specialises in digital innovation and customer engagement and a future project that the company is working on is smart shelves – providing a more interactive retail experience.

The funding platform can be viewed here: https://swoosch.it/

On an upward path

Top screen Media was founded in 2009 by Achille Traore. The company provides digital innovation, helping businesses connect better with customers.

The business is on the expansion path. Mr Traore now has a team of five other full-time staff members.

He expects this number to reach 10 full-time staff in the next few months.

Mr Traore recently also headhunted a new staff member from tech giant Apple’s corporate sales team.

“It’s a company that is growing nicely,” says Mr Traore. Merlin Group is one of the firm’s large clients.