Kickstarter startup funding to come to the UK
The Kickstarter crowdfunding scheme for startups and projects is aiming to come to the UK in the autumn.
The company offers start-ups a route to raise funding for specific projects from the general public in return for ‘investor’ benefits. A target amount to raise is set and if that amount is not reached, nothing is funded. Unlike Exeter-based crowdfunding venture Crowdcube, the benefits do not currently include shares.
The latest hit project on Kickstarter is Ouya, a low cost games console that comes with its own software development kit (SDK) so that it can be deliberately hacked (or programmed, as we used to say!). The $100 Android-based console is to the Raspberry Pi what the old ZX80 DIY computer kit was to the BBC B Microcomputer. Funders get their name engraved on their own console, or, for enough money, on the whole production run.
UK companies have been using Kickstater in the US. Xenonauts, a game by Goldhawk Interactive in London, last month raised $155,000 from nearly 5,000 small investors. However, in order to set up a Kickstarter account, you have to use Amazon Payments and in order to use Amazon Payments you have be an American citizen, and that has caused problems for international companies.
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