With seed capital for startups getting difficult to get each day,many Entrepreneurs are looking at crowdfunding platforms to boost funding for their startups. What is Crowdfunding? It describes the collective effort of people who network and pool their resources, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other folks or organizations. Crowd funding can be used meant for a wide selection of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, movie or free software development, and scientific research.
Fred Wilson, who is the founder of the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures (which has committed to Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Zynga), predicts that once the crowdfunding scenario gets up and running, the equity crowdfunding market will reach $300 billion and will undoubtedly be largely driven by families and individuals investing a tiny percentage of these assets via crowdfunding. As a point of comparison, a study from Crowdsourcing.org reports that about $1.5 billion was raised from 452 crowdfunding platforms in 2011.
Listed here are an inventory of the best crowdfunding platforms to appear to if you should be a startup entrepreneur. Kickstarter: Kickstarter is just about the oldest and the strongest crowdfunding platform. With over 74k Projects launched on it's website, and 383M $ raised through the internet site for projects, Kickstarter has profitable rate of 44%. It can help fund sets from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is packed with ambitious, innovative, and imaginative projects which are brought to life through the direct support of others.
WeFunder: Wefunder is a crowd investing platform for startups. They help seed investors purchase stock for as little as $100 in the most promising new businesses across the country. They also help founders raise funds from their most passionate users who provide product feedback, marketing evangelism, and business connections. The company was founded in January 2010 by an MIT Sloan School of Management. Right now it boasts of and endless choice of investments, as written on the website: 9,287 funders pledge to invest $25,989,550 in startups
Indigogo: Indiegogo is among the world's largest and earliest crowdfunding websites. They've helped to boost countless dollars for over 30,000 campaigns, across 194 countries. Danae, Eric and Slava each tried to boost money for something these were passionate about, nevertheless they came up short. They'd great ideas, the passion to work hard, and good networks, yet use of funding through traditional channels proved limited. The trio was determined to locate a means to fix the problem. Indiegogo was born; the crowdfunding solution that empowers ideas and enables individuals to donate funds easily.
CrowdFunder: Situated in Los Angeles, crowdfunder is a cultural network for entrepreneurs and investors to connect, crowdfund and grow. The company puts tools, connections and advice in the hands of business owners and investors at all stages in the life cycle of a business. Startups and small businesses can raise funds through equity, debt and contribution-based instruments
StartEngine Success Stories. Crowdfunder can also be holding some contests in cities across the US where local businesses compete, and get a chance to win funding upto US $500,000. This website however mainly concentrates on the US market.
RocketHub: RocketHub is a crowdfunding platform for creative professionals. You will find project topics tagged with various tagwords from beautiful to weird with this site. Rockethub is gaining lots of popularity in recent years as a result of it's continuous media exposure. SeedInvest: Concentrating on American startups, this site was started by a group of MBA professionals from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, SeedInvest seamlessly brings together entrepreneurs and investors via an equity-based crowdfunding platform in a way that has never been done before. SeedInvest empowers entrepreneurs with a platform to pitch to countless investors throughout the US in order to raise seed capital
Quirky: Quirky is a Crowdfunding Website for Inventors. According to the website, it is promoting 241 products, has 188 retail partners and has a residential area of over 283,000 people. For centuries, becoming an "inventor" is a hard gig to crack. Complexities associated with financing, engineering, distribution, and legalities have stood in the way of brilliant people executing on the great ideas. Since launching in 2009, Quirky has rapidly changed the way the world thinks about product development Startsomegood: Startsomegood is a Crowdfunding Website for Social Entrepreneurs. Start Some Good is a new crowdfunding website for social initiatives to boost funds through a community of supporters. You can also see a project from India with this website. Fundable: Founded by serial entrepreneur Wil Schroter, Fundable investors get the chance to buy business for equity. The website happens to be owning a rewards-based funding platform.