Relay Funder is building crowdfunding infrastructure for refugee communities and displaced persons. Our mission is to deliver higher capital efficiency and direct, transparent aid by moving funds straight into community treasuries, governed by trusted local leaders.

We are launching with Refunite’s Community Leader Network in Kenya and Uganda, leaders who collectively represent hundreds of thousands of displaced people. These leaders curate campaigns, steward funds, and validate outcomes on the ground, ensuring aid is allocated to what matters most in their communities.

With two decades of experience working with displaced communities globally, Refunite has built the “trust layer” essential for the success of any technology deployment. Through its Relay network of 100,000 leaders across 35 countries, reaching over 100 million people, Refunite connects Relay Funder to one of the largest and most credible grassroots networks in the world.

Relay Funder is a new approach to humanitarian funding, built in partnership with refugee networks and powered by Celo’s mobile-first blockchain. Instead of resources being lost in layers of bureaucracy, Relay Funder directs funds straight into community treasuries governed by trusted local leaders in Kenya and Uganda.

Three forces are converging: (1) collapsing trust and funding in traditional aid, (2) mature Web3 rails that enable fast, transparent transactions, and (3) community leader networks ready to verify and steward impact. Relay Funder unites these elements by enabling refugee leaders to launch verifiable campaigns and receive funds directly in community treasuries. With quadratic funding and emerging tools for on-chain impact verification, donors gain clear visibility into how their contributions are used, while leaders build credibility through transparent results.

Over time, impact verification becomes a catalyst to expand donor trust and unlock new funding markets. This represents a tangible opportunity for crypto to deliver real-world impact in humanitarian aid, aligned with Celo’s vision of prosperity for all.

The global humanitarian aid system is in crisis.

• Humanitarian need is surging: 120 million people are forcibly displaced due to conflict, climate, and instability.
• Funding is collapsing: Government humanitarian funding dropped 42% in the past year.
• Trust is broken: Traditional aid is plagued by inefficiency, admin bloat, and corruption—with some estimates showing 80% of funds lost to middlemen before reaching the ground.

Legacy aid structures cannot meet the urgency or complexity of today’s crises. Refugee communities must be placed at the center of decision-making through new, capital-efficient models that bypass bureaucratic bottlenecks and empower them directly.

Relay Funder provides a transparent, crowdfunding infrastructure that connects community leaders with global donors and match funds sponsors (via quadratic funding).

• Community-led governance: Refugee leaders propose and steward campaigns, validating needs and outcomes.
• Amplified funding: Quadratic and impact-based matching turn grassroots support into the driver of how institutional funds are distributed.
• Verifiable transparency: Every campaign and transaction is visible on a ledger, ensuring donors, partners, and communities see where funds go and what impact they create.

This approach not only ensures secure, transparent transactions and efficient aid distribution, but also reshapes aid into a participatory, efficient, and refugee informed input. Starting with pilots in Uganda and Kenya, and designed to scale to refugee communities worldwide.

We take a small percentage of funds raised through our crowdfunding rounds, similar to traditional platforms, but at lower rates to maximize capital reaching communities.

Want to raise from VCs

Kenya, Uganda

75k USD