THE WORLD’S BIGGEST crowdfunding site has gone live for Irish projects – and a comic book about a 16-year-old bounty hunter has joined a bedside device for storing digital gadgets as the first offerings.
Kickstarter today opened its doors for local creatives with a handful of previously-drafted projects among the first to start taking contributions from all over the world.
The list included the Z-Charge, a device for holding and charging smartphones and tablets near your bed, and digital artist Kevin Smyth’s pitch for a comic book called “Bounty Hunter Sakura” – which he described as being like “Sailor Moon meets Batman”.
Smyth told TheJournal.ie he looked at several crowdfunding websites, but he chose Kickstarter because it had the potential to push his project out to a big audience and reward those who chose to back his work.
“Kickstarter was very simple and people who can afford it can donate even the smallest amount towards a project,” he said.
Smyth has set his target at €2,300 to pay for the comic to be printed, although he said any extra money would help him promote the work if he beat the goal.
Irish people ‘incredibly creative’
Before the launch, Irish creators could only pitch a Kickstarter project in partnership with people based in countries like the US or UK where it was already accepting projects.
Kickstarter CEO and co-founder Yancey Strickler said Irish people were “incredibly creative” and he couldn’t wait to see what business and artworks locals came up with.
The site is now open to projects from 10 countries and over the last three months nearly $140 million (€110 million) was pledged through the crowdfunding portal – an average of over $1.5 million (€1.2 million) a day.
The most-funded project in the site’s short history, the Coolest Cooler, clocked up almost $13.3 million (€10.45 million) in backing during that period.
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