Showing that even crowdfunders need funding, Indiegogo, one of the largest of its kind on the internet, has raised US$40m in a bid to expand its global reach through mobile services.
The company, which was founded in 2007, has facilitated the financing of a variety of projects, from medical devices to books and film.
Six Indiegogo fundraised films, including Dear White People and Life Itself, have been well-received at the Sundance Film Festival.
The funding was raised by the large venture partner firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and has raised more than twice as much as the US$15m the site had raised in its last round of fundraising in 2012.
Bringing crowdfunding worldwide
Speaking to TechCrunch, the company’s CEO Slava Rubin said this funding will be important in taking the crowdfunding globally: “We’re already operational in every country in the world. We’ve been able to grow 300pc in Europe over the year and we’re planning on adding more currencies and languages for more countries.”
Some other successful crowdfunded success stories on the website include Canary, an advanced home-security device that raised nearly US$2m in August 2013.
Indiegogo’s largest competitor is Kickstarter, which has funded a number of considerably well-known projects like Oculus Rift, but Indiegogo’s model differs in that it allows fundraisers to elect whether donators can get their money back if a project does not go ahead.
