Seedrs Raises Over £1M Through Own Platform — Two leading equity crowdfunding platforms based in the UK, Seedrs and Crowdcube, announced plans to expand abroad recently. While Seedrs is heavily targeting European countries, Crowdcube is looking to launch in several European nations, and elsewhere. While making the announcement, Seedrs also launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the expansion — within hours, the campaign reached (and well surpassed) its £750,000 ($1.2M) goal.
Crowdcube Coming to Italy in 2014
Crowdcube, a UK-based equity crowdfunding platform, announced late last week that it’s coming to italy in 2014. The platform also recently signed agreements to expand into New Zealand and Spain, and will officially launch in those countries, as well as others, in early 2014.
The New York City Marathon is a big tourist draw for the Big Apple. One company that was looking forward to the event is Airbnb, which has a bit of a rocky relationship with city authorities. The company claims to have put $1 million in NYC-based hosts’ pockets over the marathon weekend, and put out this infographic to commemorate the occasion.
Chris Anderson’s 2004 Wired article lays out three rules of the long tail, which are still relevant nearly a decade on; not surprisingly, Kickstarter heeds all three.
Looking for advice on how to make a truly unique and memorable crowdfunding pitch video? Rose Spinelli writes in with advice on how to make use of ‘soft power’ and connect with potential backers in a quirky way.
Once again, nasa is tapping into the power of the crowd via a strategic partnership. This time, the space agency is pairing with a company that’s very familiar with crowd dynamics: Planetary Resources, which raised $1.5 million on Kickstarter this summer to launch a space telescope that’s available to amateur astronomers.
Roger Ebert, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, called empathy “the most essential quality of civilization.” Given how difficult it is for producers to raise money for their films, it’s quite appropriate, then, that the makers of the upcoming documentary about Ebert’s life are asking fans to open their wallets and help fund the film’s post-production.