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Online crowdsourcing has become an explosively growing arena, which is currently led by KickStarter. The number 2 on the list, Indiegogo, has now raised $40 million in venture funding, evidently hoping to bump up its position on the list.

Indiegogo may not be as popular as KickStarter but it has a flexible set of rules, compared to KickStarter’s strict requirements. This has enabled Indiegogo to run campaigns for a very diverse set of products and services, although the fact that only few of them succeed can not be ignored.

The company has now raised $40 million in funding. The new funds will be used for ‘making key hires, expanding globally, and improving the user experience with a focus on mobile, personalization, and trust.’

However, there are a lot of things Indiegogo needs to improve and correct before it can pull itself into the same league with KickStarter. KickStarter does have a very strict set of rules where you must reach a specified funding goal, or you don’t get anything. Moreover, KickStarter asks that any projects or campaigns submitted to it must be creative, and does not allow charity campaigns.

Indiegogo, on the other hand, is quite flexible on all these matters. By paying a larger amount of commission to the site, you can have a flexible funding option which means that even if you don’t reach your funding goal, you get to keep the amount that the backers pooled. The nature of projects is also diverse over at Indiegogo, with many charitable projects having been launched through the site in recent past.

Indiegogo has certainly bagged some major campaigns with success, such as $10 million for Ubuntu Edge. But while the site has raised $98 million in backing, KickStarter has already surpassed the $600 million mark. Moreover, one in ten Indiegogo projects usually succeeds while KickStarter has a 40% success rate.

Source: NYT
Courtesy: The Verge

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