Top 10 Crowdfunding Platforms

• 5 September 2019 | 916 Views | By Mint2Save

While startups are growing like anything, empowering everyone to do more and make our lives easier. There is one space that is dominating the startup sector, the fintech space. As much as it has propelled in getting a digital economy it has also helped in making payments, collections easier, reducing payment cycles, getting instant confirmations, but the buck does not stop here. There is another area where fintech is revolutionizing the way fund collection is done – Crowdfunding.

Fintech startups have made crowdfunding so much easier, whether it is for new emerging innovators who need money to build the next-gen product or whether it for a lone child suffering from a life-threatening disease who needs money for operations. The merger of these crowd-funding campaigns with fintech systems is something that has boosted the crowdfunding campaigns in a big way. So let us look at some top crowdfunding fintech startups that there are to do good:

1. iDonate

Founded in 2010, iDonate does what its name says, it simplifies donations for causes. Its mission spells out to increase the current rate of giving which is currently at 2%. It had more than 700 customers as its donors since the past year. It was one of the first companies to create a Donor Engagement Platform (DEP). Which unlike traditional CRMs helps the organization in creating deeper more engaging relationships. On the innovation side, they also developed one of the world’s first non-cash payment gateways where you can donate non-cash assets like cars, etc.

2. Crowdera

Another US-based fintech startup, which aims to build a “giving economy”. It started its operations in 2015. The USP of this startup is that it does not charge any commission to support campaigns related to social causes, education, health & environment. Crowdera had launched a campaign to help Kerala flood victims in which all the proceeds went into the Kerala Flood Relief Account started by the government. It is a whole platform where companies can choose in what areas it wants to do CS activities.

3. LawFunder

An Australia based startup that helps in crowdfunding donations for people who can’t afford a lawyer to fight for their rights. It aims in providing justice to everyone. It provides crowdfunding in two ways –
a. Free fundraising through Australian community legal centers – where any person can apply for donations to fund his legal case for free.

4.Investor Return peer-to-peer litigation funding

This is a complicated scenario and only those cases where there is a high degree of success are listed here. Funding is provided to the individual but with a condition that only 40% of the award will be given to the person who launched the campaign, the rest 60% will go to its backers. This way the backers can earn more than the average rate of return on their investments with moderate risks.

5.  Donation Road

It is a Crowdfunding platform based in Denmark which was founded in 2014. Donation road helps a campaigner in building an app or a webpage to market his campaign for funds effectively, it is a campaign based platform where you can make your campaign and ask for funds from the public, anyone can chip in that by logging into their website. What sets donation road apart is that they don’t take percentage fees for donations that campaigns receive, but they just take one-time transaction fees when you raise a campaign on their portal nothing more than that. This is also taken just to maintain their maintenance costs.

6.  Circleup:

Founded in 2012, CircleUp has headquarters in San Francisco. It is a Crowdfunding site that connects creators of new consumer products with investors and potential distribution partners, including big game players like P&G, General Mills, and eBay. CircleUp takes a reckonable tactic to invest in promising entrepreneurs through internally managed credit and equity funds. CircleUp has been recently honored as one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Data Science sector. 

7.  KickStarter

KickStarter is a global crowd-funding platform based in New York for artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators to raise funds for various community projects focused on movies, music, art, games, comics, technology, fashion, food, and photography. The platform was launched in April 2009 and it applies a 5% fee on the total amount of the funds raised and their payments processor applies an additional 3–5% fee. Individuals who back these projects are offered tangible rewards and one-of-a-kind experiences in exchange for their pledges.

8. SPRNT

Formerly known as Sportaroo is an Australia-based company founded in 2012. SPRNT is a sports funding platform for anyone who is dedicated with sports, from grassroots level to professional level. It offers athletes, sports teams, and associations the opportunity to raise funds by selling supporter packs (merchandise, experiences, or sponsorship) by posting a SPRNT on the platform. Each SPRNT has a funding goal and a time limit (from 1–50 days) set by the creator of that particular SPRNT.

9. CrowdCube

Crowdcube is a leading equity crowd-funding platform for entrepreneurs of start-ups and rising businesses. Crowdcube allows individuals to invest or loan in small companies in return for equity or an annual return. It is one of the longest established sites in the UK and providing numerous firms the opportunity to get funding. Established as a substitute to the banks, venture capital funding, and angel investors, the CrowdCube platform is used by numerous start-ups to raise capital.

10. Tilt

Tilt is a free and easy way for individuals to gather money with a group, while enterprise tools like Tilt Pro allow businesses to host, brand, and customize their own crowdfunding experience. It allows communities and groups to fundraise, collect, or pool money online.  In the past few years, the Tilt platform has been very popular among community organizers and college students.

11. GoFundMe

Gofundme is a crowd-funding platform, allowing people to raise money for diverse life events. Its management has raised more than $4 billion for ventures like medical expenses, education, social services, sports, pets, and many other ventures, making it the world’s largest online fundraising platform. It is also funded by some of Silicon Valley’s best venture capital firms, including Accel, Greylock, and TCV.