The way the developers of applications or devices are able to access funds to bring their ideas to reality changed with the arrival of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, which continue to grow and evolve.
The crowdfunding means that the users of internet projects that is considered valuable or interesting, and bring some money with the promise of being the first to test the results.
Proof of this project as undertaken by Neil Young to develop a music player HD called Pono, the actual creation of one hoverboard as used in the film “Back to the Future II”, one smart watch called Pebble or electric bicycles, as Sondors.
The two major platforms that exist to show such projects are Indiegogo, founded in 2008, and Kickstarter, which hit the market a year later, managing to reunite between both more than two billion dollars to make thousands of projects with startups help of netizens.
Now Indiegogo is going one-step further by launching Enterprise Crowdfunding, i.e., that the established and well known to those companies use this platform to innovate, experiment and see how much acceptance have their new products.
“We created Indiegogo to empower anyone anywhere and could raise funds for their ideas, from an inventor working in a garage to a company that is part of the Fortune 500,” said the CEO of the platform, Slava Rubin.
Thus, not only large companies place their projects Indiegogo, also receive advice on business strategies and marketing network.
The first
The crowdfunding platform takes advantage of the technology fair CES 2016 to introduce this new model that could be replicated by Kickstarter if successful, and present the first projects have raised the money to be realized and belong to General Electric, Hasbro and Harman.
GE created a community called FirstBuild, which has already managed to raise three million dollars for an ice machine called Opal, and monitor heat to cook called Paragon.
Meanwhile, Harman launched a campaign to assess the potential market for a new sound isolation technology called Augmented Reality Audio, for hearing aids of JBL line. With this, the user may determine the type of sounds you want to be isolated and which do not: for example, the speakers of a car or the barking of a dog are important when you go running down the street.
Hasbro also saw an opportunity and managed to raise the money for a new card game called Irresponsibility is created so that a whole family can enjoy a quiet afternoon.
“The startups will remain fundamental to the crowdfunding” added Rubin.
