List of 11 Best Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups

Crowdfunding is all about creating a community around your project. A community that funds the project and also helps in spreading the word about your project. It’s all about asking for small amounts of money from many people instead of finding that one or two people to cut you a large cheque.

The process of crowdfunding works on the accessibility of vast network of people which is easily available on the platform of the internet. There are many crowdfunding websites that can bring investors and entrepreneurs together and can help them raise or increase their funds that goes beyond the traditional circle of owners, relatives and venture capitalists.

Crowdfunding provides an opportunity to anyone with an idea to pitch it in front of waiting investors. Investors can select anyone from hundreds of projects and invest amounts that are little and large, as per their wish. Crowdfunding sites then generate revenue from a percentage of the funds raised and help innovators launch their ideas, help them in bringing a change and provide incentive to operate.

Nonprofit organisations use crowdfunding platforms to gather donations. They often refer to crowdfunding as “online donations or fundraising,” “social media fundraising” or “peer-to-peer fundraising”.

How crowdfunding works in India to raise funding for startup

The concept of crowdfunding has just started to gain momentum in India.‘Funding’ is the first problem new people, entering the world of business forfirst time, find it difficult. Startups have to turn to institutions and angelinvestors because there is lack of funds for bootstrapping or lack of h…

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Here are 11 crowdfunding sites in India for startups  that are shaping the way ideas and startups grow:

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is one of the most well-known name in crowdfunding and arguable the most active platform as well. It has raised over $2 billion since its launch in 2009. Kickstarter backs creative projects like film, music, games, technology, books, research, etc. Since our launch, on April 28, 2009, 17 million people have backed a project, $4.5 billion has been pledged, and 168,500 projects have been successfully funded.

The platform doesn’t accept humanitarian projects or charity or other personal use projects. Kickstarter charges a fee of 5% for every successfully funded campaign. The purpose of Kickstarter is to bring creative projects to life by focusing on the creativity and merchandising. But if you are not able to reach the target in the allotted time, you will not be assessed any receivables or fees in any payment.

Milaap

Milaap is one of the most popular crowdfunding platform among Indians. Most of the people achieve their donation target on this platform. Although, maximum number of campaigns are for raising funding for health causes but many student entrepreneurs have successfully raised money to fund their startup ideas. The platform has raised over INR 330 Crore to support more than 100,000 people across the country.

Also Read: 4 Practical Tips to Attract Investors- How to get Investors

GoFundMe

GoFundMe is a donation crowdfunding site where people have raised an amount of more than $5 billion. The platform is entirely backed by donations and does not charge success fees. Since there is a huge audience over this platform, getting your startup funding campaign noticed is quite difficult. And projects also typically have lower dollar amounts. But the businesses which are important to their communities are often able to raise funds successfully.

GoFundMe does not charge any fees for the funds you raise and the money doesn’t have to be paid back. You are only responsible for the fees charged by the payment processor which is around 2.9% only.

Indiegogo

Indiegogo was the first major crowdfunding platform that has raised over $1 billion since its release in 2007. The platform funded over 1,75,000 campaigns with contributions from 2.5 million across the globe in 2015. It is a crowdfunding site and also a marketplace platform. The campaigners can raise funds and continue raising funds pertaining to their idea as the site offers a “flexible funding” option.

The campaigners can also sell their products directly to the Indiegogo network of consumers. The platform focuses on product innovation and bringing innovative ideas to life. Indiegogo also has no prohibition against cause-related humanitarian projects. The site continues to serve as a Launchpad for entrepreneurial ideas.

Also Read: How to Raise Fund for Startup in India

Ketto

Ketto is a crowdfunding platform that allows people and non-governmental organizations to raise money for their creative, social and personal causes. From 2012 to 2019, 500 crore was raised on the platform for over 1.5 Lakh campaigns and 25 Lakhs donors. The platform includes and features campaigns for health care, startups, education, personal campaigns, sports, children and women empowerment, animal welfare and alike causes.

Ketto also provides a section on its website called “Urgently Fund Required” and campaigns that can provide “Tax Benefit” to donors. The Kerala flood project called “Two Wheels of Hope” was a successfully funded campaign that was featured on Ketto and it provided cycles for schoolgirls, among other campaigns. The purpose of the platform is to being social change, raise awareness and of course raise funds.

Also Read: Funded Indian Startups with Investors (2020)

CircleUp

CircleUp is an equity-based crowdfunding company that is designed to help emerging brands and startups raise capital and grow their business. CircleUp, since its release in 2011, has helped 211 entrepreneurs raise $305 million, its average investment being $100,000. The site has a good reputation for elaborate due diligence on the companies it accepts.

Most of its investors have a deep experience in the field of retail and consumer brands and are willing to provide strategic guidance and support during the process. And hence, CircleUp is best for CPG focused businesses. It offers a line of credit up to $3 million with APRs ranging from 14-25% including all feels. This is still lower than most other online lending options. The fees that you will pay for equity crowdfunding will depend upon your business and will be determined by CircleUp at the time you apply.

Raise money with CircleUp and you can connect with experienced, knowledgeable investors in your industry, who can potentially help you grow your company faster and provide one-on-one guidance. You also get access to CircleUp’s network of operational partners, like Johnson & Johnson and eBay, who can share business expertise and potentially help with product development and manufacturing.

Also Read: Top Funded Startups India 2019

Patreon

Patreon is a crowdfunding membership platform that provides creators business tools to run a subscription content service and has raised more than $350 million. The artists build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to their subscribers called “patrons”. It offers fundraising on an ongoing basis. The majority of the businesses on Patreon produces some form of entertainment.

Patreon is best for people indulged in creative businesses like creative projects like video and photography, music, writing, comics, podcasts, games, animation, vlogging, artists and other entertainment where content is produced on a regular basis. Patreon charges a fee of 5% for any payment made to the creator through its platform and typically around 3% transfer fee when you withdraw funds. The startups can use this platform to provide the access to their particular content & services.

Wishberry

Wishberry is India’s largest crowdfunding platform that was launched in 2012 and has a 70% success rate for creative projects. The platform is strictly for creative projects including ideas and startups related to arts & design, film & other video, music, dance, theatre, publishing, comics, photography and also support the creative startups.

Wishberry does not accept any product-based projects right now such as hardware products, IoT products, non tech products like fashion etc. Its purpose is to bring creative and innovative idea to life and build a community of donors for creative ideas, consulting and marketing services as well. Wishberry is a reward-based platform from the projects that they fund. They also provide personal consultation, social media management, PR & publicity, email marketing, global payments.

Also read: List of Startups funded by Ratan Tata

FuelADream

FuelADream is an online crowdfunding website that helps you raise funds for startup ideas, charities, social causes and disaster relief efforts. The platform is committed to radically changing the lives of 2.2 billion people in India and Africa. It gives campaigners the choice of AON i.e. All Or Nothing and KWYG i.e. Keep What You Get and believes in the motto - “quality more than quantity”.

FuelADream keeps the number of projects less in order to keep the authenticity and genuineness of the campaigns posted on the platform. They provide a section called “Crowd Favorite” lists and that includes the most-liked and most-funded campaigns. The platform focuses on community-led activities and creative ideas and aims to change the traditional methods of raising funds and simplifying the process.

Fundable

Fundable is a fee-based crowdfunding platform that offers the users both reward-based and equity-based campaigns for their startups. The focus is on small businesses and entrepreneurs. It deals with campaigns across all business sectors in India. Entrepreneurs and businesses across India have used this platform to raise funds for affordable clinical diagnoses to intellectual travel experiences.

The various sectors included in its domain are banking, food and beverage, travel, and fitness. Fundable also provides a section on its websites called “New and Noteworthy” that ensures that people who want to support can browse through the newest and most engaging campaigns. Fundable does not charge any kind of success fees. It's simply a flat monthly charge per month.

Also read:Top Entrepreneurs of India

Catapooolt

Catapooolt is India’s first ever crowdfunding platform. Catapooolt is a platform for funding personal projects like art startups, films, music, art and technology, or enterprises and businesses. It gives additional feature to its campaigners to partner within their network of investors, accelerators, incubators, mentors, and for marketing, sales and distribution community endorsements.

Catapooolt will bring together communities, relevant partners, latest tools and resources to enable what every idea needs to be successful - Funds and Engagement. The platform becomes a comprehensive ecosystem for crowdfunding by focusing on individual projects, startups and enterprises.

Great innovation and ideas need a boost with funding for their startups. And with these great crowdfunding websites available to us at these times, founders and innovators have a range of options to choose from.

Also check out: Success story of Impactguru - Healthcare Crowdfunding Platform

Please share more crowdfunding platforms for startups in India if we missed any of them. Lets make the strongest community of entrepreneur by helping each other.