Crowdfunding: Definition, Functions
Crowdfunding refers to activities undertaken to fund distinct projects or specific ventures through collecting funds over from mass hordes of virtual visitors, digital traffic, particularly through online platforms.
Donors are referred to as investors, collaborators, co-owners, shareholders, partners.
Fundraising seeks to secure substantial reserves of funding to support causes or some charities.
This targets broader audiences as individuals who initiate independent fundraiser campaigns have mass volumes of followers/supporters, also these followers broaden, expand social media sharing to reach vast audiences through the spread of influence, network chatter.
Crowdfunding Work: Origin/History of Crowdfunding in Detailed Review of Evolution, Progression
If one wonders if crowdfunding represents a novel invention that has now expanded to universal adoption, this is not entirely the case.
Crowdfunding was historically used in South Asia during ancient times, mostly to fund arts endeavors or spiritual missions.
Previously crowdfunding was termed as “Chanda” in the past.
Versions of Crowdfunding:
Equity-based crowdfunding: Before reading further about such versions of crowdfunding, one should note that equity-based funding presently remains illegal in certain economically under-developed nations.
Basically, in sum, crowdfunding refers to collaborative fund collection undertaken by individuals to fund the causes of other individuals or more specialized organizations taken in representative equity form.
These remain legal under the auspices of the USA, within which legislation set down in 2012 had enacted, laid down specific laws that permit a group, band of small investors to collaborate for funding.
Reward-based crowdfunding: Such versions of Crowdfunding are alternatively termed as certain non-equity avenues to fund independent projects.
These have been widely applied for fund raising campaigns like securing funding to finance the construction of school buildings, funding for cinematic films, funding scientific research, funding prototyping of inventions, etc.
Many people that provide funding support intentionally hope to receive monetary returns in exchange for funding from such projects.
Debt-based crowdfunding: These are widely termed as ‘Peer to Peer,’ ‘P2P,’ ‘marketplace lending’ or occasionally ‘crowdlending.’
Borrowers initiate campaigns to support funding needs, demands, so lenders donate funds that support certain causes, goals.
Fundraising Platform | FundRazr |
| Specialty | At FundRazr, they understand the difficulties of raising money and they are passionate about providing an alternative funding source and one of the best fundraising sites in the industry for charities, businesses, or personal causes. They believe in the power of community support and sharing your story with the world. Services: Crowdfunding platform, Easy to Use, Affordable, Accessible to everyone, alternative funding source, fundraising site |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | http://fundrazr.com/ |
| Address | 171 Water St Suite 200, Vancouver, BC V6B 1A7, Canada |
| Emaill | [email protected] |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
Fundraising Platform | Wix |
| Specialty | Create a Stunning eCommerce Website. Easily manage your orders and keep track of your inventory any time. Offer multiple options, such as credit cards and PayPal. 0% commission on sales. Create, manage, and share promotional coupons to keep customers coming back. Set customized tax and shipping rules for each destination. Services: Social plug-ins, e-commerce, online marketing, contact forms, e-mail marketing, and community forums |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://www.wix.com/ |
| Address | 6350671, Nemal Tel Aviv St 40, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel |
| [email protected]x.com | |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
Fundraising Platform | Giving.sg |
| Specialty | Giving.sg is your one-stop national giving platform to donate, volunteer and fundraise for any of the over 600 registered non-profits in Singapore. The vision of their giving is to build a City of Good – a Singapore where Individuals, Organizations and Leaders come together to give their best for others. Services: Donate, volunteer, fundraise, City of Good, ISO27001 security certified data center |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://cityofgood.sg/ |
| Address | 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #04-88 The Central Singapore, Singapore 059817 |
| Telephone | +65-6550 9595 |
| Opening hours | 9 am to 6 pm |
| Review 1 | A great place to start volunteering, going for meaningful events where you get to learn about yourself and others around you! A Good Space resides here and their events are freakishly amazing as well! Do drop by when you are near too. Plus literally everyone who works there are super friendly and kind. They share food with strangers too! And not to mention the toilets are super clean! And the rooms are super comfy! Truly a great place to hold events and to go to an event. Come by and you won’t regret it! And they have amazing inspirational graffiti up on the walls too. How does it get any better than that? |
| Review 2 | Fun n wonderful place to volunteer your skills n talents n time! Love it like a second home! |
| Review 3 | Great venue for training workshops and talks. Wifi is rather unreliable though. |
Fundraising Platform | GIVE.asia |
| Specialty | GIVEasia is on a mission to unlock the world’s generosity. You only have to know one thing: You can make a better future. GIVEasia is on a mission to unlock the world’s generosity. You only have to know one thing: You can make a better future. Unlock the world’s generosity. Services: Free Crowdfunding Platform in Asia, Donate Online, fundraising campaign, Raise funds for charities, non-profit organizations, Crowdfunding |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://give.asia |
| Address | 352 Tanglin Rd, #01-07, Singapore 247671 |
| [email protected] | |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
Fundraising Platform | Raisely |
| Specialty | If you’re working for a charity or a non-profit in Singapore, Raisely can help you get online with your own, branded, fundraising websites. With Stripe you can take payments from your supporters worldwide. Take donations in Singapore Dollars, other currencies, with payments made directly to your bank account in Singapore. Services: Fundraising for charity, donation form, create custom fundraising websites, take donations, fundraising platform |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://www.raisely.com/countries/singapore |
| Address | 5/70 Pirie St, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia |
| Telephone | [email protected] |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
Fundraising Platform | gogetfunding |
| Specialty | Crowdfund life-changing personal causes. Online Fundraising Pages for Singapore. They helped people from all over Singapore crowdfund the things that matter to them most. From personal fundraisers to acts of kindness, generosity and more. Create your campaign for free. Accept cash donations instantly with credit / debit cards and PayPal. Services: Crowdfund, Fundraising Pages, Accept donations, credit / debit cards and PayPal, campaign, personal fundraisers, philanthropy |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: https://gogetfunding.com/contactus/ |
| Website | https://gogetfunding.com/ |
| Address | 137 Cecil Street, Hengda Building, #09-01, #09-05, 069537 |
| https://gogetfunding.com/contactus/ | |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
Fundraising Platform | SimplyGiving |
| Specialty | They are Asia’s leading Crowdfunding platform for Social Impact. They connect passionate people with causes they care about the most. SimplyGiving’s award winning platform works with 190,000 donors and fundraisers across Asia to maximize their fundraising potential. Combining the power of social media and tech innovation, SimplyGiving helps to fundraise. Services: Crowdfunding platform, fundraisers across Asia, social media, tech innovation, peer-to-peer fundraising, raise money efficiently, securely |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | http://www.simplygiving.com/ |
| Address | Level 18, Axiata Tower 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| Telephone | [email protected] |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
Fundraising Platform | OurCrowd |
| Specialty | OurCrowd is the leading equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors who wish to invest in funding, seeding capital for promising start-ups, and global early-stage companies. Managed by a team of well-known investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd selects opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings these start-ups to its accredited membership. Services: Equity crowdfunding platform, building innovative, global start-ups, invest in global early-stage companies, post investment support to companies |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | http://www.ourcrowd.com/ |
| Address | 28 Derech Hebron 9108001 Jerusalem |
| Telephone | +972-26369300 |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
| Review 1 | Great Firm Great People Great Manager Good Luck to you all |
| Review 2 | Amazing idea of crowdfunding for the startups, where OurCrowd brings together the Private Investors & VCs to the startups. It provides a platform for the startups to raise money. The office is pretty cool to work at with some innovative workspaces. There are regular pitching being done by the Jerusalem startups to get them listed on platform for funding. Located very near to the Old City of Jerusalem. |
Fundraising Platform | Airfunding |
| Specialty | Fundraise towards your dream using Airfunding. Airfunding is a global donation-type crowdfunding service. Anyone in any country can quickly and easily create projects to raise funds around the world for their beloved ones, for themselves, for the community, and for charity. Global crowdfunding platform where projects can be funded globally. Services: Crowdfunding platform, global donation-type crowdfunding service, raise funds around the world, fundraising project, cover hospital bills |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://www.airfunding.net/ |
| Address | Matsura bldg. 5F 1-9-6 Shiba Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 105-0014 |
| Telephone | +81 3-6277-8045 |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
Fundraising Platform | Funding Societies |
| Specialty | Funding Societies provides business financing through funding from individuals like you and me. Funding Societies is a friendly online digital lending platform for SMEs to acquire loans and fuel their growth through investor funding. Funding Societies is glad to offer Green Financing plans for SMEs to kickstart plans for business. Services: Business financing through funding, digital lending platform for SMEs, acquire loans, investor funding, kickstart plans for business |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | http://fundingsocieties.com/ |
| Address | 112 Robinson Road Level 8 Singapore, Singapore 068902 |
| Telephone | +65- 6221 0958 |
| Opening hours | 9 am to 6 pm |
| Review 1 | Great way to invest , prompt response to queries and step and step guidance |
| Review 2 | I have been using their P2P platform, since Nov 2020.What I like about their platform. Their loan fact sheets, makes it simple to understand the SME business key numbers, without overwhelming you. IMO, they are one of the better platforms in the region. |
| Review 3 | Efficient team and many investment opportunities, like the auto invest feature. The team does their best to filter out companies when lending the money. BUT THIS IS HIGH RISK INVESTMENT YOU CAN LOSE ALL YOUR CAPITAL. Don’t go in if you can’t accept defaults on payments. |
Fundraising Platform | Minterest |
| Specialty | Minterest is an award-winning digital investment platform founded in 2017. They lead the way by delivering risk-adjusted returns to their growing base of investors through unlocking institutional grade real estate and corporate investment opportunities. Minterest connects people to opportunities to give them the ability to live their best lives, funding. Services: Digital investment platform, delivering risk-adjusted returns, unlocking institutional grade real estate, corporate investment, manage your finances |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://minterest.sg/ |
| Address | 1 Raffles Boulevard, Level 2 Crescent 1, Suntec City Singapore, Singapore 038983 |
| Telephone | +65 8366 0968 |
| Opening hours | 10 am to 8 pm |
| Review 1 | I’m so glad to have found Minterest as a beginner in investments. Minterest allows investors like me to gain access to institutional-grade real estate investments. It is a quick and easy sign up process. By completing the member verification form, signing up with your email and you’re good to go! Minterest makes investing so easy by having an auto invest feature! They also allow users to have the convenience of viewing deals on the platform and making investments on the go. How convenient and easy! |
| Review 2 | I have been investing and my investment outlooks seem so bright! I like the fact that Minterest lets us as investors have a diverse portfolio with institutional-grade real estate & corporate investments. This platform really is the best way to diversify your investment portfolio, especially with the ease of using the platform to browse deals at the tap of your finger & invest on the go! Top up for the wallet is so fast & easy, no fuss! They also have an Autoinvest feature that allocates my funds easily based on my own investment preferences! It’s so flexible and easy to use! And I’m seeing profit already! |
| Review 3 | Minterest is a great platform for beginner investors to start from as low as $50! It is also a great way to diversify investment portfolio with such a wide range of deals to choose from (e.g. real estate and corporate investments). You can simply invest on the go with no worries! There are also a lot of features; one notable one is the auto-invest feature where it allows you to allocate your funds easily based on investment preferences! |
Fundraising Platform | Funded Here |
| Specialty | FundedHere was founded in Singapore in 2015 and they are the first Singapore home-grown platform that offers equity crowdfunding and lending-based crowdfunding. The idea is simple: their platform connects investors to some of the most promising start-ups in Asia. Businesses come to their platform to raise funds for equity stakes. Services: Home-grown platform, equity crowdfunding, lending-based crowdfunding, funding campaign, crowdfunding investors, entrepreneurs |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://www.fundedhere.com/ |
| Address | Manhattan House,151 Chin Swee Road, 04-01 Singapore, Singapore 169876 |
| Telephone | [email protected] |
| Opening hours | 9 am to 6 pm |
Fundraising Platform | Fundnel |
| Specialty | Fundnel is Southeast Asia’s largest private investment technology platform, building next-generation capital markets infrastructure to increase access and liquidity for entrepreneurs and investors. At the core of their deal-making expertise lie their proprietary algorithms that syndicate opportunities in private companies and PE/VC funds to their network of strategic investors, clients. Services: Private investment technology platform, building next-generation capital markets infrastructure, increase access, liquidity for entrepreneurs, investors, deal-making expertise, proprietary algorithms |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | http://fundnel.com/ |
| Address | 18 Cross Street, #02-101 Cross Street Exchange Singapore, Singapore 048423 |
| Telephone | +65- 6747 5198 |
| Opening hours | 9.30 am to 9 pm |
| Review 1 | This is an awesome platform. User experience is 2nd to none. Great access to the worlds best deals. Highly recommend to sign up if you are an investor. |
| Review 2 | Good place |
| Review 3 | Professional guys |
Fundraising Platform | Kickstarter |
| Specialty | Kickstarter is one big name in the game not to be missed. Essentially the pioneering founders of rewards-based crowdfunding, Kickstarter has launched more projects that you can count. This includes anything and everything from films and games to technology, numerous creative projects, including The Travel Tripod, Coolest Cooler, Exploding Kittens card game, and even more. Services: “help bring creative projects to life”, crowdfunding site, global crowdfunding platform, tangible rewards, experiences in exchange for their pledges |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://www.kickstarter.com/ |
| Address | 58 Kent St, Brooklyn, NY 11222, United States |
| Telephone | [email protected] |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
| Review 1 | The best crowdfunding platform in the universe, hands down! |
| Review 2 | Nice building. |
Fundraising Platform | Indiegogo |
| Specialty | Empowering people to unite around ideas that matter to them and together make those ideas come to life. PSA: Crowdfunding is NOT shopping. Crowdfunding projects for the future of fashion? Kinder alternatives to the fast fashion industry which is destroying our planet. Changing the lives of their backers through perks. Services: Crowdfunding, crowdfunding projects, crowdfunding campaigners, fundraising, fundraising platform |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=45336 |
| Website | https://www.indiegogo.com/ |
| Address | 965 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103, United States |
| Telephone | +1-866-6414646 |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
| Review 1 | This is one of the most incredible businesses I have ever seen! |
| Review 2 | Would benefit from having real time customer support . Response time not 24 hrs as stated . Great site to fundraise |
| Review 3 | I love this site – it helps so many people and helped me travel abroad and do medical missions and help people who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten help |
Fundraising Platform | Patreon |
| Specialty | For creators: Patreon is a way to get paid for creating the things you’re already creating (web comics, videos, songs, more). Fans pledge a few bucks per month OR per thing you release, and then you get paid every month, or every time you release something new (SoundCloud, YouTube, your website). Services: Getting creators paid, pay your favorite creators, pledge, fundraising, creator gets paid regularly, patron of the arts |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://www.patreon.com/ |
| Address | 600 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94103, United States |
| [email protected] | |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
| Review 1 | Great place. |
| Review 2 | The coolest people helping creators and patrons connect to bring more of what they love into the world! Totally awesome! |
| Review 3 | Really good idea to sponsor artists. |
Fundraising Platform | Shopify |
| Specialty | Shopify refers to an ecommerce platform one may utilize for developing one’s store either online or offline. Store owners utilize Shopify. Shopify lets one peddle products online utilizing one’s personalized website and/or personally via using Shopify POS. The ecommerce website builder contains features for all including amateurs and ecommerce gurus. Services: E-Commerce store, virtual retail platform, initiate some shop space, display goods, engage clients, transact bills |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: https://help.shopify.com/en/questions#/login |
| Website | https://www.shopify.com/ |
| Address | 151 O’Connor St Ground floor, Ottawa, ON K2P 2L8, Canada |
| Telephone | https://help.shopify.com/en/questions#/login |
| Opening hours | 9 am to 5 pm |
| Review 1 | Amazing local retailer! I am not a shopper but love this store. Every man in Victoria should check out this shop. You support local Canadian business. Box stores cant compare. |
| Review 2 | Best Canadian company. Great support. Its amazing they are local to Ottawa. |
| Review 3 | Great place to work. Amazing infrastructure |
Fundraising Platform | Moolah Sense |
| Specialty | Singapore’s #1 Digital Lending Platform. MoolahSense is a fascinating investment avenue where you can interact directly with the business owner, select the industry that you wish to invest in, offers relatively higher interest rates, transparency, and flexibility in tenure. They are indirectly helping local SMEs in their business growth journey. Services: Digital Lending Platform, investing, investment avenue, funds transfers, monitor your investments |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | http://www.moolahsense.com/ |
| Address | 150 Cecil Street #03-00 Singapore, Singapore 069543 |
| Telephone | +65- 6871 8780 |
| Opening hours | 9 am to 6 pm |
| Review 1 | I’ve 5 loans with MoolahSense. 3 were current, 1 fully repaid, 1 became delinquent. It was a callable loan and when there were no repayments in 2 months, I thought it’s game over. Kudos to the collections team that they are following up with the issuer and I got a repayment recently. I know chasing money isn’t easy and a lot of times people make excuses or fly kite. Keep up the good work and keep pressing on! Hope 2020 will yield better returns! |
| Review 2 | MoolahSense paints a real picture of what is happening in the SME space as compared to other p2p platform. My overall portfolio performance is positive. |
| Review 3 | Great experience using this platform! I am a frequent investor on this platform and I can honestly say I appreciate the Auto Allocation feature as it has made investing much more convenient. Thumbs up on the prompt and helpful customer service as well, good job! |
Fundraising Platform | Ripple |
| Specialty | The current global payments infrastructure does not meet today’s business or consumer demands. By unlocking the power of blockchain and digital asset technology, financial institutions can dramatically improve the speed, cost, and reliability of how people transact around the world. Their solutions unify the infrastructure underlying global payments, decentralized fintech. Services: Blockchain, digital asset technology, global payments, decentralized fintech, enterprise blockchain company |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | https://ripple.com/ |
| Address | 77 Robinson Rd, #16-00 Singapore 068896 |
| [email protected] | |
| Opening hours | 24/7 |
| Review 1 | Happy to see the Ripple office in Singapore. “Ripple $XRP is the future” I’m sure Ripple is going to rule the world. I would like to work with Ripple and waiting for the right opportunity 👍 |
Fundraising Platform | Matchmove |
| Specialty | A Bank in Any AppTM. MatchMove makes it easy to put essential financial services in any app with their Spend.Send.Lend. TMsolutions. Customers and partners in more than 6 countries. They use best-in-class security tools, technology, and banking industry practices to maintain the highest levels of security, fully compliant and licensed. Services: B2B Remittance, digital payments, digital cash transfers globally, digital wallets, prepaid cards |
| Pricing | Request a quotation: [email protected] |
| Website | http://www.matchmove.com/ |
| Address | 137 Telok Ayer Street #03-03 Singapore, Singapore 068602 |
| Telephone | +65-6271 1371 |
| Opening hours | 9.30 am to 6.30 pm |
| Review 1 | Less Q, kind and helpful staffs. |
| Review 2 | Great working place |
Litigation crowdfunding: This refers to versions of crowdfunding under which a plaintiff reaches out to mass crowds to obtain funding to financially support court dispute cases; this mainly occurs privately.
The plaintiff requests money mainly in the form monetary exchange, or a cash donation, which then delivers tangible rewards in exchange for the value invested.
Considered further, in the event the claimant wins the legal disputes, each investor could receive sums substantially larger than the original investments.
Donation-based Crowdfunding: A prime instance for these could be soliciting funds from many to support personal or charitable causes.
All of these versions of crowdfunding hold distinct, separate applications.
Applications Of Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding for Personal Use:
Within any random moment in time, one could require financial assistance.
This may apply to any festivities, tours, medical needs, training, specific charitable causes, and more.
Many other causes, varying with individual interests.
Hence, if one has a lack of funding to meet one’s needs, one might opt to crowdfund.
Many people have opted for crowdfunding and collected substantial funding gains.
Popular, Trending Crowdfunding Platforms:
Milaap
Milaap is a highly sought after, trending Crowdfunding platform in Asia.
With Milaap you could solicit funds online, over digital funding platforms, for oneself, one’s close kin, Charities, or others.
They draw almost 2 Million visits monthly.
Initiating any specific campaign remains very easy with no costs for the use of Milaap.
Assigned campaign managers could assist you through funding campaigns, providing constructive advice on how to deploy resources to fund, drive your campaign.
Fundraising remains free, also no additional charges are levied upon total funds collected.
Ketto
Ketto refers to crowdfunding platforms that collects funds for distinct groups including NGOs, non-profits also might further get tapped to fund artistic or alternate personal charity causes.
This originally began in 2012, also this came from Mumbai.
The platform fee spans between 0 to 5%.
Wishberry
Wishberry is a crowdfunding platform based on Kickstarter.
This started from 2012, also this remains a popular, trending, very profitable platform for Creative Artists.
This is a reward-exchange crowdfunding platform, in which people that donate, receive rewards returned from project gains.
Uploading your crowdfunding upon this platform costs $75, once you withdraw funds, Wishberry collects 10% as platform charges.
FuelADream
FuelADream is a crowdfunding platform for many that seek to raise funds for creative projects, purposes, funds, parties, or community initiatives.
These actively collect funds for technology gigs including patent prototypes for smart eBikes, smart motorbikes or much more.
$55 is a compulsory charge for starting a campaign, while 9% of full funds collected is taken as platform charges.
BitGiving
BitGiving is a platform that collects funds for many causes like disaster funds, or funding agricultural projects, as well as many other independent causes.
It enables you to publish narratives on your project with crowdfunding, or share community experiences on the platform also.
It remains free of charge to start any campaign there.
The platform fee ranges between 6-10%.
ImpactGuru
ImpactGuru is a platform that was initiated under Harvard’s Innovation Lab’s Venture Initiation Program from the USA.
It began from 2014, also this is employed to fund many causes ranging between donation-exchanges to reward-exchanges, individually or for causes, these are fully legitimate, legally permitted.
You simply have to pay a compulsory platform charge of 0 to 8%.
DreamWallets
DreamWallets is a South Asian crowdfunding start-up that hosts many campaigns ranging between many categories like Music, photography, food, fashion, environment, or other alternative prolific causes.
They started platform operations from July 2015.
Begin your campaign without charges or simply pay a platform charge of 5-9% after withdrawing your funds.
Catapooolt
Catapooolt is a crowd engagement platform used for funding Music, Arts, Movies or other technologically run initiatives.
It is a platform run from Mumbai.
It started from 2012.
This platform charges $30 as the starting charge or added 10% of full funds collected.
Start51
Start51 is targeted at people that actively seek to transform concepts into real projects.
They maintain the basic agenda, to collect funds, for those that seek to implement ideas in real projects.
Upload your idea without charges and simply pay platform charges of 5% for funds collected.
TheHotStart
The last feature for this ranking of trending crowdfunding platforms is TheHotStart.
Started from 2014, the platform had gradually chalked up $915 in funding for independent campaigns.
Mainly, they market services mainly to creatives coming from the art, media, television, film, music production industries.
One could begin your project without charges here, then pay charges capped at 10% of funds collected.
