According to a report by tech news site Techcrunch, crowdfunding platform Prefundia was now opening its doors to the public after three months in beta. A product of US startup accelerator Boomstartup, Prefundia was born out of a purpose to help projects prior to launching their campaigns.
In early data released by Prefundia, 195 projects had used its platform for publicity. The crowdfunding platform maker had claimed that projects who had used Prefundia to generate buzz in their projects prior to launching were 71% successful most of the time.
Prefundia co-founder Daniel Falabella said, "People certainly do use the platform to test viability of projects. Here's one we know is using it for that purpose. In fact, we're developing a component for the creator dashboard which will compare a project's stats to all others on Prefundia in order to benchmark and give a clearer indication of demand."
The platform would display upcoming projects that are seeking pre-launch funding. It would also offer hosting space for text, photo and video information about an upcoming project. Prefundia users, TechCrunch noted, could opt in to alerts on funding campaign launch dates of such projects.
Falabella said the startup does not take a portion of funds of successful projects. He said, "Monetization plans are on hold until the first quarter of 2014 but will include partnerships with manufacturing brokers, marketing firms, crowdfunding sites, etc - relationships and deals are already tested and inked."
On the other hand, data obtained by TechCrunch indicated that Prefundia's success rate for crowdfunding projects was skewed considering the data sample is small. Kickstarter's success rate on average is at 44%, while Indiegogo varies from 9.3% to 34%.
Prefundia's successful project to date would be the pen-shaped gStick Mouse project. Failing to get traction on Kickstarter, gStick Mouse received USD130,500 in 16 days and had around 4,000 investors.
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