Indiegogo

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Indiegogo

show
Screenshot
Type of site Crowdfunding
Available in English, German, French, Spanish
Headquarters San Francisco, California, U.S.
Owner Indiegogo, Inc.
• Slava Rubin
Created by • Danae Ringelmann
• Eric Schell
Website indiegogo.com
Alexa rank 2000 (August 2017)[1]
Launched January 2008
Current status active
Indiegogo /ˌɪndiˈɡoʊɡoʊ/ is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae
Ringelmann,[2] Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San
Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows
people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Indiegogo charges a 5% fee
on contributions. This charge is in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 3% +
$0.30 per transaction.[3] Fifteen million people visit the site each month.
The site runs on a rewards-based system, meaning donors, investors, or customers who are
willing help to fund a project or product can donate and receive a gift, rather than an equity
stake in the company.[4] Following changes in Security and Exchange Commission rules
earlier in 2016, Indiegogo has partnered with MicroVentures to offer equity-based campaigns
beginning in November 2016, allowing unaccredited investors to participate with equity
stakes.[5]
 In 2014, Indiegogo launched Indiegogo Life, a service that people can use to raise money for
emergencies, medical expenses, celebrations, or other life events. Indiegogo Life did not
charge a platform fee. In 2015 Indiegogo Life was renamed to Generosity.com. [6] Donors use
solely credit cards to donate, and processing is conducted by Stripe.[7] Stripe's processing
fees of 3% plus 30 cents of every donation still apply. [8]

Contents

• 1History
• 2Products
• 2.1Crowd funding
• 2.2Top projects by funds raised
• 2.3InDemand
• 3Campaign rules
• 4Reception
• 5Patent disputes
• 6See also
• 7References
• 8External links

History[edit]
In 2002, while working as an analyst on Wall Street, Danae Ringelmann co-produced a
reading of an Arthur Miller play. Though the performance was popular with audiences, there
was little financial incentive available, and Ringelmann decided to seek alternative revenue
streams.[9] Ringelmann was originally inspired to work with independent filmmakers and
theater producers after a filmmaker 50 years her senior saw she worked at JPMorgan and
asked her to fund his film.[9][10][11] In 2006, Ringelmann went on to the Haas School of
Business to start a company she felt would "democratize" fundraising. [9][10] There she met Eric
Schell and Slava Rubin, who had had similar experiences with fundraising. [11] Schell had
previously worked with The House Theater Company in Chicago, [12] while Rubin had started a
charity fundraiser for cancer research, after losing his father to cancer as a child. [13]
Ringelmann, Schell, and Rubin developed their concept in 2007, under the name Project
Keiyaku.[14] The site officially launched at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, with a
focus on film projects.[10] In June 2010, MTV New Media partnered with Indiegogo to develop
new content from the site's projects.[15] In September 2011, the company raised a $1.5 million
Series Seed financing round, led by Metamorphic Ventures, ff Venture Capital, MHS Capital
and Steve Schoettler, Zynga's co-founder. [16] In February 2012, President Barack Obama's
Startup America partnered with Indiegogo to offer crowdfunding to entrepreneurs in the U.S.
[17]
 In June 2012, Indiegogo raised a $15 million Series A round from Insight Ventures, Khosla
Ventures and Steve Schoettler, Zynga's co-founder. [18] In January 2014, a Series B round of
funding added $40 million to bring the total venture capital raised to $56.5 million. [4][19] David
Mandelbrot (the company's then-COO) was named CEO in January 2016. [20]
In May 2019, CEO David Mandelbrot stepped down for personal reasons. [21] He was
succeeded by former Reddit core-product leader Andy Yang. [22]

Products[edit]
Crowd funding[edit]
In an interview with Film Threat, Rubin said the site is “...all about allowing anybody to raise
money for any idea.”[23] Users can create a page for their funding campaign, make a list of
"perks" for different levels of investment, then create a social media–based publicity effort.
Users publicize the projects themselves—through Facebook, Twitter and similar platforms.
The site levies a 5% fee for successful campaigns. For campaigns that fail to raise their target
amount, users have the option of either refunding all money to their contributors at no charge
or keeping all money raised minus a 9% fee.[24] This option must be selected before the
campaign begins, and the goal will be listed, directly underneath the amount raised, as fixed
(only receive funds if goals is met) or flexible (will receive funds if goal is not met). Indiegogo
doesn't provide prospective backers with any means to contact campaigns to ask questions
or make suggestions before they decide to participate.
Indiegogo offers direct credit card payment acceptance through their own portal. Those funds
are disbursed up to two weeks after the conclusion of a campaign. [25] As of August 2017,
Indiegogo does not offer PayPal as an option for contributions. [26] Indiegogo does not stand
behind campaigns once they have been funded, responding to a complaint of non-delivery of
promised rewards, "each crowdfunding campaign is run by the individual campaigner who is
solely in charge of distributing any perks offered. Indiegogo does not guarantee that the perks
offered by the campaigner will be produced or delivered." [27] According to The Wall Street
Journal, as of January 2014 over 200,000 campaigns have been launched, raising "millions of
dollars" to people running crowdfunding campaigns in 70 to 100 countries every week.
[19] Already-funded projects also use Indiegogo, to create publicity or find distributors.

A few of the successful Indiegogo campaigns include:

• "Lets Give Karen – The bus monitor – H Klein A Vacation!", which raised $703,833,[28]
• Stick-N-Find, which has raised $861,165,[29]
• Bug-a-Salt, which makes a gun firing salt, intended to kill flies, and which raised $577,546, [30]
• Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum, which raised $1.3 million,[31]
• The Storm Electric Bike, which as of 19 February 2015 has raised $3.5 million from 6,293
funders.[32][33]
• SuperMeat, an Israeli cultured meat company.[34]
On 24 July 2013, Canonical Ltd. launched its crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo to raise
$32 million for the Ubuntu Edge smartphone.[35] This is the highest target set for any
crowdfunding campaign.[36] However, the campaign only raised $12.8 million, falling short of
its target, and no funds were disbursed. [37]
In February 2014, Indiegogo launched an unsuccessful funding campaign for the Wikipedia
Books Project, which had planned to print the entire English Wikipedia in book form later in
the year.[38][39]
In April 2014, after being shown clear evidence of fraud, Indiegogo responded by deleting
their anti-fraud guarantee.[40]
Top projects by funds raised[edit]
See also: List of highest funded crowdfunding projects
Five largest successfully completed Indiegogo projects by total funds pledged (only funded projects are
listed)[41]
B
% Clos
Total Cate ac
Project name Creator fun ing
USD gory ke
ded date
rs
$12,174,1 Technolog 2015-03-
Flow Hive[42] Honey Flow[43] 17,385 36,653
87 y 07
$5,859,41 Sondors Electric Technolog 2015-04-
Storm Sondors 6,855 14,646
2 Bike[44] y 02
$5,048,21 Restore King Chapel 2015-05-
Elise Durham Education 63 282
3 Now[45] 22
$5,022,94 An Hour of Code for 2014-12-
Code.org Education 26,570 2,801
3 Every Student[46] 14
$4,511,30 Broken Lizard 2015-04-
Super Troopers 2[47] Film 215 52,532
1 Industries 24
InDemand[edit]
In 2014, Indiegogo introduced their Forever Funding [48] program, which allows crowdfunding
campaigns to continue to raise funds after their initial campaign period has ended, which was
later renamed “InDemand”.

Campaign rules[edit]
Users between the ages of 13 and 17 may not use the site without a parent or legal
guardian's consent. Campaign owners may not create a campaign that tries to raise funds for
illegal activities, or that is clearly made up or claiming to do something impossible.

If the campaign offers perks, it can't offer any forms of interest in the company or venture, or
any financial incentive. The campaign cannot offer alcohol, drugs, weapons or ammunition, or
any form of lottery or gambling. A campaign can not promote ideas or opportunities of hate,
personal injury, death, or damage of property, or anything that can be distributed that violates
another person's rights.[49]
 Reception[edit]
Along with Kickstarter, Indiegogo is one of the two most popular donation-based crowdfunding
websites. Indiegogo has looser guidelines than Kickstarter, letting users fund campaigns that
Kickstarter would not, for instance Kickstarter does not allow funding of Healthcare projects.
[50]

Patent disputes[edit]
On 23 January 2015 a patent infringement lawsuit was filed by Alphacap Ventures LLC
against multiple crowdfunding platforms, including
Indiegogo, CircleUp, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Gust, RocketHub and Innovational Funding.
[51] The case was ultimately dismissed by the presiding judge, with prejudice, for having been
filed in bad faith; as was admitted by the plaintiffs. [52]

See also[edit]
• Civic crowdfunding
• Comparison of crowdfunding services
• Open-source hardware
• Kickstarter
• Play Business
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