Kickstarter UK Receives £2m Pledges In One Month

More than £2 million has been pledged to Kickstarter since the crowdsourced funding platform launched in the UK a month ago.

Between 31 October and 30 November, £2,069,164 was pledged by 45,799 people, the equivalent of £48 every minute. More than 400 projects were launched, with 30 successfully funded.

Kickstarter launched in the US in April 2009 and claims that more than $350 million (£218m) has been pledged by more than 2.5 million people over that time, funding more than 30,000 projects. It allows creative projects in a number of fields, including art, dance, fashion, film, games, music, photography, publishing, technology and theatre.

Kickstarter UK reaches £2m

A public art project called the Chime Pavilion was the first successfully-funded project in the UK and raised triple its funding goal. The very first project to launch, a hardware project called Picade, was also successfully funded, receiving £74,000. Successful projects are charged a five percent fee, but unsuccessful ones are not charged.

Kickstarter said projects have launched from all around the UK, including Belfast, Brighton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Hull, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham and York, but they are also attracting international interest.

Only 39 percent of UK project backers are British, with European and US backers accounting for 23 percent each and other areas comprising 15 percent. Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark and the Netherlands are home to the most European backers. This contrasts with the US, where 78 percent of projects are supported by home backers.

Creators can request that international backers add an additional amount to cover the cost of overseas shipping or even limit certain rewards to domestic backers due to the difficulties involved with international shipping.

“Projects from UK creators are finding support from local backers and being discovered by people all around the world. We’re thrilled by their success,” said Kickstarter. “Thanks to the hard work of creators and the support of their enthusiastic backers, an amazing array of new creative works are already coming to life. Congratulations to all of them, and cheers.”

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