Kickstarter to open Irish website in coming months

21 Jul 2014

The crowdfunding behemoth Kickstarter will soon be unveiling its Irish-dedicated website to facilitate Ireland’s growing number of crowdfunding entrepreneurs.

The decision to set up an Irish dedicated site will mean fewer complications for Irish users who until now have otherwise had to sort through the administration of either the US or UK site.

According to the Irish Independent, there have been 90 Irish projects launched on Kickstarter since its inception, with a majority reaching their pre-determined target. There have been 48 successful projects, 38 unsuccessful projects, and four projects still waiting to reach their goal.

However, news of the American company setting up in Ireland in a matter of months might prove to be a major challenge for indigenous crowdfunding websites in the country. Fundit, for example, has been established particularly to fund Ireland’s creative projects, and PledgUp, has been established to fund a range of community projects.

Last year, PledgUp took part in Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Up programme.

Kickstarter has established itself as one of the largest of its kind in the world and since its launch six years ago, more than US$1bn has funded more than 650,000 projects, including the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset.

Crowdfunding image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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