Kickstarter to launch its crowdfunding platform in UK

10 Jul 2012

Kickstarter has announced via Twitter that people in the UK will be able to launch their creative projects on its crowdfunding platform from this autumn. Up to now, only US-registered projects had been able to use the site.

Set up in 2009, Kickstarter focuses on funding creative projects. Everyone from filmmakers to artists, illustrators, musicians, foodies and designers have been launching their projects on the platform, with the aim of garnering funding pledges in exchange for rewards.

On Twitter, Kickstarter has revealed its UK intentions: “People in the UK will be able to launch projects on Kickstarter starting this autumn! More info soon! <3 <3 <3”, it said via @kickstarter.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter operates by all-or-nothing funding method. This means projects must be fully funded or else no money changes hands.

The site does not support donations to causes, charity projects, or general business expenses, however.

Up to now, to set up a project, users must have an Amazon Payments account, which means they have had to tick a few boxes. For instance, to be eligible for an Amazon Payments account people must be a permanent US resident with a social security number (or EIN), according to Kickstarter. People must also have a US address, US bank account, and US state-issued ID, as well as a major US credit or debit card.

Today, however, BBC News indicated that UK-based companies are already using the site, by setting up a US company or partnering with an existing one.

To give you an idea of the type of creative projects that make their way onto Kickstarter, today you can check out As Eire Wept, a fiction project based on Irish emigration to the US during the 19th century. Shannon McChesney is behind the project. For the project to go ahead, McChesney is looking for US$9,000 in pledges. With nine days to go, however, she has received US$75 in pledges.

If her funding goes ahead, McChesney aims to spend three weeks researching historical data in Ireland before heading to New York to sift through the New York Public Library Archives about Irish emigrants.

Ireland has the Irish crowdfunding site Fundit.ie which follows a similar crowdfunding model to Kickstarter. But will Kickstarter itself be coming to Irish shores anytime soon?

Creativity image via Shutterstock

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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