Most of us are familiar with the concept of crowdfunding to promote a creative project or other pursuits, as it has become woven into the fabric of commerce. As you start to look into different crowdfunding platforms, you will quickly find numerous types of these platforms, for just about anything under the sun that needs to be funded.
Kickstarter is the most well-known, but there are many others that may be a better fit for you to raise funds for your small business or startup.
Kickstarter
Though ArtistShare is generally credited with being the first crowdfunding platform to emerge in the U.S., Kickstarter followed a few years later and gained the most traction of the preceding platforms. It pioneered the concept of sourcing funds from the public for just about any project, including startups that were not able to secure traditional funding from investors.
It is now the most widely-recognized and trusted platform to raise money for creative projects of all kinds, with 122,683 projects successfully funded, by around 13 million individuals.
Fundable
A smart pick for small businesses, Fundable has 23,000 investors on deck who are actively seeking new investment opportunities, giving you pretty good odds to get your business idea off the ground.
You can interface with investors through Fundable to find just the right people who want to fund your project. Over 377,000 entrepreneurs have raised millions to fund their adventures by utilizing rewards-based public funding, or equity funding campaigns from accredited investors.
CircleUp
CircleUp is a great option for businesses who are in the early stages of their development and need help with building and establishing their consumer brand.
Something akin to a virtual accelerator for budding businesses, CircleUp provides assistance with finding investors, developing a strong brand, and making the connection with distributors.
MicroVentures
This hybrid funding platform combines venture capital with equity crowdfunding. MicroVentures offers both startups and investors supreme customer service and will directly speak with you, to make sure you have a solid understanding of the investment relationships into which you are entering.
MicroVentures has helped to fund Dropbox, Lyft, Meetup, Pinterest, Snapchat, Spotify, and many more, facilitating more than $100 million in transactions between startups and investors.
Thrinacia
As its sophisticated and complex name suggests, Thrinacia is a unique service with a more specialized purpose. Instead of just giving you a neatly-packaged, plug-and-play platform for launching a fundraising campaign, Thrinacia gives you the tools to build the platform yourself.
It focuses on the nuts & bolts behind your crowdfunding launchpad, perfect for developers, so that you can create it from scratch.
In this crowdfunding-crazy environment, you will actually have your research cut out for you. There are many more that are not listed here, and chances are, there is a platform that was designed with your specific needs in mind.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.