Kickstarter kicks off UK funding operation

CROWDSOURCING INTERNET DARLING Kickstarter has opened its doors in the UK, paving the way for people in Blighty to fund interesting projects and products.

Kickstarter has been US based and has enjoyed some success. A recent notable investment prospect was Ouya, the project to develop an Android based games console.

There the developers were able to raise millions towards their goal of releasing a cheap, easy to develop for games console.

Kickstarter hopes that the UK operation will do the same for inventors and developers here. Unfortunately Yancey Strickler, the cofounder and head of Community at Kickstarter was unable to make the launch, due to the weather and problems getting out of New York. The same storm, Sandy has shuttered its New York offices.

UK projects appear along with ones from the US, and when we visited the website it had a very good, down to postcode level, idea of where we are based.

Naturally there are already some interesting projects up for investment. The firm had advised users to get their listings ready for the launch when it announced its UK plans earlier this month.

"Beginning today, people in the UK can get started building their projects by clicking on the 'Start a new project' button on the Start page and selecting the UK as their country," it said.

"When we're ready for projects to launch on October 31, we'll send an email letting them know that they can hit the launch button whenever they're ready."

Products that are successful in raising funding will incur a five percent charge. Those that aren't, won't. µ