Kickstarter Comes to Canada to Launch Canadian Campaigns

By: Talha Bhatti  |   August 6th, 2013   |   Business, News, O Canada

While the official launch of Kickstarter may be set for September 9, Canadians can begin submitting their creative ideas well before that day as the crowdfunding has officially opened for business in Canada. Originally being something that only the Americans and some Europeans enjoyed, Canadians will now be able to pitch in their ideas and hopefully secure some funding to kick start it off.

 

All projects will be listed now in Canadian dollars. Anyone who would like to fund from an external source will have the option of using an onsite conversion calculator with the approximate conversion rates to their local currency. Like the projects that were funded in the United States and Europe, a 5% fee will be applicable up North as well by Kickstarter.

 

The company is hosting workshops around Toronto and Montreal in a bid to support the launch of Kickstarter in Canada. There were rumours going around that the interest in Kickstarter’s campaign had lost interest, but according to Kickstarter head Cindy Au, things are just getting better.

 

“Actually, the numbers are going up. In 2012, we saw $84.5 million pledged to game projects. As of August 1st, 2013, $64.7 million have already been pledged to game projects,” Au said, according to Gamespot. “Of the Kickstarter users who have backed a game project, 39 percent have gone on to back another game. It’s a very healthy category with a great community of backers.”

 

What Kickstarter does is find new ways to fund creative projects. Anything from films, games and music to art, technology and design. People basically pitch in their ideas and allow investors to see whether it would be a good investment or not. Launching back in 2009, Kickstarter has reportedly received $734 million in pledges from 4.6 million people around the world. Those statistics ultimately funded 46,000 creative projects.

 

Keeping the Canadian market at bay, Kickstarter is now hoping that opening its doors up North will now allow for more business to begin pouring in. It was back in June that the start-up company announced plans to launch in Summer of 2013, which gave time to entrepreneurs to begin working on which projects they would like to have funded.

 

With a month left in its official launch, it will definitely be interesting to see what Kickstarter brings to Canada and just how creative Canadians are when it comes to climbing up on the business ladder.

 

Source: TechVibes