Kickstarter pledges reached almost $100,000,000 last year

Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects seeking funding in order to realise their goals, have just released a review of 2011, and given the current economic worldwide situation, it makes for encouraging reading for those seeking a less traditional method to get their own start-up established.

Kickstarter operates by giving start-up projects the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a huge community by way of a page on the site, and if people like the sound of the idea, they can make a pledge to the project. Each project has a target amount of donations to reach in order to become fully funded, and if this target is not met, then no money is exchanged.

Some of the most interesting stats released by the site are that Kickstarter saw a total of $99,344,382 pledged in 2011, which is a huge increase on the 2010 figure of $27,638,318. Last year the site, which was launched in 2009, had 30,590,342 visitors and saw the launch of 27, 086 projects. Inevitably, not all of the start-ups that got their big break on the site succeeded, the project success rate was 46 per cent, up 3 per cent on 2010.

Kickstarter identifies thirteen main categories into which projects fall under, such as Publishing, Fashion, and Food, and the sectors that received the most pledges last year were Film and Music, with $32 million and $19 million pledged respectively to projects under those categories. The fastest launch was that of the iphone dock project Elevation Dock, which gathered $165, 910 within its first 24 hours.

The type of projects that launched on the site were completely varied, from civic orientated projects such as a derelict site converted into a student farm  and turning a remote island into an artists residency , to manufactured items such as a titanium bicycle lock  and a device that turns an iPod nano into a watch. Further examples of just how varied and quirky the projects can be include an RPG comedy for Xbox 360  and a pop up restaurant that changes every month.

Video played a big part in the project’s pitches, with 80 per cent of projects utilising video in their pitch, which is indicative of how effective a tool video is becoming in online business.  Some of the best project videos as selected by Kickstarter can be viewed here. The site currently is only really viable for those in the US, but Kickstarter say that they are currently working on opening up to more countries, and this an exciting indicator of how aspiring start-ups can achieve funding using the traditional method of a pitch, but in a whole new online, interactive, social way.