Crowdtilt Raises $23M to Make It Simple to Crowdfund Everyday Things

CrowdtiltBy now you have probably heard of or contributed to one of the famous crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter or Indiegogo that have raised millions for creative works like independent films and gadgets or to help spur initiatives in local communities. But what about crowdfunding everyday things?

“Only so many people have a $40,000 documentary they want to get funded,” says Crowdtilt CEO James Beshara. And now for everyone else there’s Crowdtilt. Whether you’re looking to raise $2,000 for a vacation with friends, $500 to cover your loses in fantasy football this season or just a few hundred bucks to throw a friend a birthday party done right, there are lots of everyday reasons to pool money together in a group.

Meet Crowdtilt

Crowdtilt believes this type of crowdfunding has the potential to go viral in a different and more personal way than a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign. “This makes crowdfunding a more daily and weekly thing,” Beshara said. “It’s similar to what Twitter did for blogging.” You can chip in with friends to make anything happen.

Beshara isn’t looking to stop there, though. He also wants to provide the world with a “WordPress for crowdfunding” — Crowdhoster — an open-source suite of tools that allows groups to run larger campaigns on their own sites. This is similar to what App.net did since social network applications are no longer allowed to campaign on Kickstarter, leaving Indiegogo and a self-hosted campaign as the only viable options. Crowdtilt takes a 2.9% transaction fee for using the Crowdhoster service and the tool has already been used to raise more than $1 million for a food-replacement powder company called Soylent.

It’s no surprise that investors are excited about “the horizontal platform nature of what they’re doing,” as Jeff Jordan of the Andresseen Horowitz venture capitalist firm puts it. In fact, investors appear so excited that Jordan’s firm has led a series B round for Crowdtilt at $23 million, just after leading a $12 million Series A round for the company this year along with other investors that include SV Angel, Sean Parker and Silicon Valley Bank.

According to CEO Beshara, Crowdtilt aims to use the new funding to hire and expand internationally.
 
Are you thinking about crowdfunding something big or small in the near future? Tell us more about it below!

via AllThingsD

Daniel Zeevi

By Daniel Zeevi

Daniel is a social network architect, web developer, infographic designer, writer, speaker and founder of DashBurst. Full-time futurist and part-time content curator, always on the hunt for disruptive new technology, creative art and web humor.