Ever wanted to own a restaurant? How about co-owning one?
Or how about having a 1/500th share?
Investors will get that opportunity later this year when Urban Space 500, a crowdfunded restaurant, opens in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The Teple Misto online platform for startup initiatives, which is based in Ivano-Frankivsk, is looking for 500 investors to put $1,000 each into the project. Eighty percent of the profits from the business will be reinvested in social initiatives to develop Kyiv.
Teple Misto first used the crowdfunded restaurant business model in Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine two years ago, opening a restaurant called Urban Space 100.
The idea was for the place to be not just a restaurant, but also a space for delivering presentations and discussing ideas with like-minded people. Since its launch in 2015, Teple Misto has successfully financed 38 projects and spent almost Hr 600,000 ($22,000) on various initiatives to improve the city, such as helping stray animals, and developing Ivano-Frankivsk’s cultural life.
The opening of Urban Space 500 in Kyiv will bring the same idea to the capital. The management model consists of two parts: a social component provided by Teple Misto in cooperation with NGO Insha Osvita, and restaurant management performed by the Druzi company.
The goals of Urban Space 500 are to create an accessible platform for city events, and to establish a fund to finance social projects and start-ups. The initiative looks to attract 500 socially aware investors who will invest $1,000 each in the enterprise and allocate funds to other projects.
The co-owners will meet four times a year to consider applications for their grant program, and select the best ones. The grant-funded projects will be non-commercial initiatives carried out in Kyiv to develop the urban environment.
Urban Space 500 will combine a restaurant, store and Urban Space Radio.
“In future we plan to create a public radio net with studios all over Ukraine,” project coordinator Svyatoslav Popov told the Kyiv Post.
Even though it is a franchise restaurant and will function on the basis of a business model used before, there are no strict project requirements as to location, design and cuisine. Urban Space 500 wants to use socially active people’s potential and is open to any ideas from future co-owners. “We want Urban Spaces in different cities to be original,” Teple Misto director Yuriy Fylyuk said.
Anybody can become a co-owner of the restaurant – the only requirements are that investors have the money, and agree with the idea and the ethical code compiled by the project authors. The document includes such principles as publicity, apoliticism, equality, and individual participation. Investors will have to read the code and sign it.
In return, they will get to be a part of a unique initiative and make an impact in city improvement.
“I was eager to meet other 99 ‘crazy’ people and become a part of a new adventure,” graphic designer, co-owner of Urban Space 100 Evgen Efimenko told the Kyiv Post.
“It’s amazing to have the opportunity to support projects useful for the city.”
