Archive for the ‘Crowd funding’ Category

New Australia-only crowdfunding platform launches

Friday, July 11th, 2014
Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr

Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr

Australia now has its own crowdfunding platform.

OzCrowd launched recently, starting its first campaign at the beginning of July.

“As well as providing the opportunity for individuals to contribute to fellow Aussies’ causes, OzCrowd will be providing a new way for corporate sponsorship, directly to particular causes as opposed to organisations,” marketing director Marika Karolidis said in a news release.

Founder Nick Karolidis, a lawyer and entrepreneur, states that this “direct funding model should allow for a much more efficient way for funds to flow between big business and individual causes”.

Australians are often hesitant to make donations because many organisations take up to 40% of donations as administration fees, meaning only a fraction of funds donated actually reach the target individual.

But with the low cost of an online platform, Nick Karolidis expects upwards of 90% of funds to be received by individuals.

Individuals with fundraising ideas can sign up at OzCrowd.com, authenticate their identify through Facebook and post their fundraising campaign within minutes. Organisations seeking to get involved should contact partners@ozcrowd.com

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Posted in Australia, business, Crowd funding, E-mail & the internet, internet usage | 1 Comment »

New crowdfunding platform opens in Australia

Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr

Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr

VentureCrowd, an Australian online equity based crowdfunding platform, has officially opened for business in the country.

The VentureCrowd platform allows investors to receive equity in high growth-potential startups, making them shareholders in the startup ompanies.

It opened Feb. 20 with over 200 registered investors and 36 startups which have been pre-screened by the best Australian accelerators, incubators, angel groups and university programs.

Artesian Venture Partners, one of Australia’s leading early stage venture capital firms, developed the platform.

According to Artesian managing partner Jeremy Colless, there are a very large number of sophisticated investors in Australia who have not previously invested in the startup space.

“The wholesale investor market in Australia is large with 207,000 wealthy individuals in Australia sitting on $US625 billion ($684 billion) worth of assets,” Says Colless. “Until now there have been major barriers to entry for investors in startups. An investor either had to have a large amount of money and time available to screen and review each potential startup investment personally, or had to commit as much as $250,000 to a venture capital fund to qualify as a limited partner.”

To read more about this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, Crowd funding, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, investment, online business, social networking, Success story | No Comments »

Kickstarter announces Australian launch date

Thursday, October 17th, 2013
Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr

Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter will be live in Australia as of Nov. 13.

The US-based platform, which has helped raise more than $US800 million for creative projects broke the news recently via its online blog.

“In August we announced that Kickstarter would soon open up to projects based in Australia and New Zealand for the first time. Today we’re happy to announce that the day has finally come!,” the blog read.

The company said Australians could start building their projects now and would be able to launch those projects on Wednesday, November 13.

“We thought the month-long gap would give everyone plenty of time to build and tweak their projects before launching. Beginning November 13, they can launch and share their projects with the world.”

Crowdfunding is a modern alternative to traditional funding avenues such as bank loans. It enables people to raise money through pledges from a large number of people, usually through a web-based campaign.

Until now, Kickstarter has only been open to US, UK and Canadian citizens.

To read more on this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, Crowd funding, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, investment, social networking | No Comments »

Kickstarter expanding to Australia and New Zealand

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013

Online crowd sourcing site Kickstarter has announced that it will open up to Australian and New Zealand projects in the near future.

Kickstarter is hosting sessions in Sydney and Melbourne this month for people who have project ideas.

Founded in 2009, Kickstarter allows people to pitch their ideas to the general public to solicit funding for their ideas to get made. Movies, video games, gadgets and music has all been funded through the U.S.-based site.

To read more about this story, click here.

Posted in Australia, business, Crowd funding, E-mail & the internet, Expansion to Australia, internet usage, investment, online business | No Comments »

Freelancer pushes competition out of the way to become best

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

With $50 million in revenue, Freelancer.com, started in 2009 by Matt Barrie and stationed in Sydney, has overtaken its competition to be the go-to place for businesses to find top notch freelance contractors and for those contractors to find work.

Recently, the website made headlines for expanding its innovative crowdsourcing contest feature beyond design categories to include projects in any category.

To read more on this story, click here or here.

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Posted in Australia, business, Crowd funding, innovation, online business, Success story | 3 Comments »

iPledg grows business while helping others to do same

Saturday, June 22nd, 2013

Started in 2011 in Queensland and boasting $500,000 of revenue in 2012, iPledg founders Bryan Vadas and Andy Tompkins have continued to grow the online crowd funding platform while helping other businesses and community projects get off the ground by connecting the people with the ideas directly with potential backers.

To read more about this story, click here and here.

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Posted in Australia, business, Crowd funding, innovation, investment, social networking | No Comments »