In the last two months crowd funding options have expanded in Australia and New Zealand.  Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the ubiquitous crowd funding sites that have led the revolution in enabling creative projects by getting creators and backers together to make things happen; from projects raising a few thousand dollars to those raising in excess of $10 million. 

These new sites make it easier for Australian creators to access the worldwide community of backers and the size and scope of this funding option is amazing.  Kickstarter claims on its website that since it's 2009 launch, its community of 5.2 million backers have pledged at total of $754 million in funding 51,996 successful creative projects.  Kickstarter claims that 44% of the projects reach their funding goals. 

Indiegogo launched in 2009 has also facilitated thousands of products with millions of dollars raised.

Until now, Pozible was the most easily accessed site for Australian creators and it is by far the largest Australian home grown crowd funding platform, hosting 4500 projects from its beginnings in 2010.  Pozible claims to be one of the 3 biggest platforms in the World.

Each of these companies provide different offers to attract creators.  Kickstarter and Pozible will only process pledged funds for successful projects (projects that meet their stated funding goal) while all funds collected on Indiegogo are forwarded to the project creators.

Fees are charged by each of the companies at different levels but generally run from 4% to 9% depending on the funding arrangements. Of course don't expect not to be charged for payment processing fees that include a fixed transaction price and another 3% to 5% for each pledge.

Pozible and Indiegogo support many artistic projects including film, media and music and Pozible have recently launched a category for creators conducting research.

Kickstarter is probably the platform best suited to creators to seek funding for new products.

Despite some problems with creators failing to complete their projects, crowd funding is a source of funding that is here to stay.

Bayly has experience working on crowd funded projects.  Call us if you want to discuss how crowd funding might suit your project (03) 9413 9000.

Check them out;

The iLid iphone walletThis project was successfully launched via Kickstarter in 2011 and the $28,000 raised was used to manufacture tooling and production parts to fulfill supply to kickstarter backers.  The original iLid has been rolled out for the 5s model range.

The 3 in 1 Powercot

 This product should be on Kickstarter soon.  The funds will be raised to manufacture stock and to set up the distribution system for the product that will be provided on a rental basis.