Lucky Ant

Lucky Ant is the first ever hyper local crowd funding platform. When small businesses in your community can’t grow and get better because cash is tight, Lucky Ant gives you the opportunity to help them.

Businesses need money for many things, but at Lucky Ant we focus on a single project. Lucky Ant projects can be almost anything that will help a business grow. Businesses featured on Lucky Ant have raised money for new equipment, brand development, advertising campaigns, new staff, and even repairs.

Lucky Ant brings you one business every week that needs help funding a project. When we post a project, it has 7 days to reach its fundraising goal. When the goal is reached, Lucky Ant unlocks the funds, and the business can fund the project.

Lucky Ant pre-screens and selects one business per neighborhood per week. By focusing everyone on one business, it makes it more likely that it will get funded. Also, by having an established relationship with each business that posts on Lucky Ant, we can assure the reliability and quality of businesses that we feature.

At Lucky Ant we do not hold any of your credit card informations. All payments are processed through Authorize.net.

NO, when you make a pledge we DO NOT charge your card. Your card is only charged once the project is funded. If the project does not reach its goal, you are not charged. To do this we use a system called "authorize-only" (more information below).

All businesses on Lucky Ant are retail Mom N’ Pop shops. Lucky Ant does not feature large corporations, franchises, or chains. Beyond that they can be almost anything. We’ve had restaurants, gyms, clothing stores, and bakeries. We look forward to featuring many more!

All projects are grouped by neighborhood. We automatically start you off in your neighborhood, but if you’d like you can fund projects anywhere.

It depends on the project and what they need to buy, but the average is $10,000. Check the Project Goal to see what each business is looking to raise.

If the goal isn’t reached, nothing happens. The business doesn’t get the funds, and you don’t get charged. It sucks, but sometimes it just wasn’t meant to be.

Lucky Ant pledge amounts are $5, $25, $50, $100, and $500.

Every project has a goal and a "raised amount" that tells you how much the business has raised so far and how much they still need to raise to reach their goal. We will also send you an email as soon as the project has reached its goal.

No, you cannot withdraw a pledge. Once you have promised your help, no backsies.

When a project has been funded, the business will be in touch with you and send you updates on how the project is going.

Well, we didn’t really expect you to give money away for free. When you pledge money towards a project, that business will give you perks in return.

Businesses on Lucky Ant love to get creative so the perks can be all over the place. The simplest ones are free products or services, but they can get really crazy. Some of our favorites we’ve heard so far: “We’ll name a pizza after you,” “We’ll close down the restaurant for you and your date to have a romantic dinner,” “Our chef will come to your house and cook you dinner.”

No. This is not that kind of investment. There is no ROI (return on investment) in this game. We’ll leave that to the hedge funds.

When the redemption date has arrived, you just go over to the store (or give them a call), show them your ID, and they will check that you are on their list. It’s as easy as that.

Each project has a redemption start date. Make sure you check it on your project page or your pledge receipt.

Each business that we feature has gone through our vetting process. We know the business owners, and we only bring them to you if we trust them ourselves.

Unfortunately there’s a risk in any investment. Businesses close for many reasons. Lucky Ant makes an effort to verify that the businesses we work with are financially sound, but nothing is ever 100%

Lucky Ant merchants only get their money if they reach their goal. Instead of charging you now we wait until everyone has made their pledges. We only charge if the business has reached their goal.

We use a system called authorize only. Authorize only is what bartenders use when they "open a tab". We process your card and contact your bank to make sure there is enough money to cover your purchase, but we don't ask for the money right away. The bank holds those funds on your card for us, and when the project is done we call them again. If the project is successful, we charge the card, if it isn't we just tell them to release the funds.

No! There is no refund because Lucky Ant never actually charged your card in the first place.

Lucky Ant is proud to be a New Yorker. We are based in the beautiful Lower East Side Neighborhood, home of our personal favorites: Katz’s, the Sunshine Theater, and many other local legends.

So far Lucky Ant is in New York City, but we have plans to grow and soon. We are monitoring our signups, so if you’d like us to come to your city next: sign up as many of your friends as possible.

If you run a business and would like to be featured on Lucky Ant, please send us a request through our contact form and one of our sales people will be in touch with you within 48 hours.

If there is a businesses that you know of that needs our help, let us know through our contact form and we’ll get in touch with them.