Crowdfunding has really took off in 2013, with sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, as they enable start-ups to launch new and innovative products, and some established, even large companies, I’m thinking Canonical with Ubuntu Edge here, have also tapped into that market, actually shifting part of the risks from shareholders, to customers / individual funders.
In this post, I’ll go through all the crowdfunding projects, 16 Indiegogo and 25 Kickstarter campaigns, featured on cnx-software.com between the beginning of December 2012 till the end of November 2013, to find out which ones have been a stellar success in terms of funding and on-time delivery, and those that have failed in one way or another, with some being close to looking like scams. There was a wide range of products with dealing home automation, the Internet of things, wireless Arduino compatible boards, Linux development boards, media players and more.
Let’s go straight to the subject with a table sorted chronologically.
| Date | Project | Crowdfunding Site | Funded? Pledged amount / Goal |
Expected Delivery | Actual Delivery | Comments |
| 6. Dec. 2012 | StickNFind | Indiegogo | Yes $931,870 / $70,000 |
03/2013 | 04/2013 | There does seem to be quite a few complains on their Facebook page however |
| 3. Jan. 2013 | PlayJam GameStick | Kickstarter | Yes $647,658 / $100,000 |
04/2013 | 10/2013 | |
| 11. Jan. 2013 | Crystalfontz CFA-10036 | Kickstarter | No $12,184 / $30,000 |
03/2013 | – | The board is now available from the company website |
| 21. Feb. 2013 | CoolShip | Indiegogo | Yes (Amount unknown) |
04/2013 | Delayed to eternity | The Indiegogo page is gone, the company (Focuswill) website too, and nobody ever got their device. The project owner apparently took the money, saw he could not make profit, and ran with the money. |
| 7. Mar. 2013 | The Mojo | Kickstarter | Yes $100,490 / $7,000 |
04/2013 | 04/2013 | |
| 20. Mar. 2013 | RFDuino | Kickstarter | Yes $352,700 / $5,000 |
07/2013 | 10/2013 | Shipping took place is several batches over 1 month starting in mid-October |
| 12. Apr. 2013 | UDOO Board | Kickstarter | Yes $641,614 / $27,000 |
09/2013 | 10/2013 | Boards shipped in several batches in October |
| 29. Apr. 2013 | CoAction Hero | Kickstarter | Yes $12,110 / $10,000 |
07/2013 | 09/2013 | |
| 2. May. 2013 | DroneShield | Indiegogo | Yes $8,708 / $3,500 |
09/2013 | 09/2013 | Only a few units were shipped in September to people willing to be beta testers, and more units have been shipping slowly, with all items shipped by the end of December |
| 28. May. 2013 | Aithon Motor Control Board | Kickstarter | No $8,460 / $18,000 |
09/2013 | – | Allegedly working with STMicro to complete the board design, but no news since June 2013. |
| 5. Jun. 2013 | Scanadu Scout | Indiegogo | Yes $1,664,574 / $100,000 |
03/2014 | – | |
| 14. Jun. 2013 | Digitstump DigiX | Kickstarter | Yes $107,783 / $50,000 |
09/2013 | 11/2013 | |
| 17. Jun. 2013 | Stealth Nighthawk F-117A | Indiegogo | Yes and No (Flexible campaign) $7,404 / $40,000 |
08/2013 | – | The company promised the device to backers, but to date none of them received anything |
| 20. Jun. 2013 | Fargo Ethernet Boards | Kickstarter | Yes $20,605 / $10,800 |
09/2013 12/2013 (R4DI) |
10/2013 – |
About 15 days delay for the first board, and probably about the same for the next one. |
| 21. Jun. 2013 | Babuino Stick & Board | Indiegogo | No $9,241 / $40,000 |
10/2013 | – | The project appears to be canceled |
| 23. Jun. 2013 | BLEDuino | Kickstarter | Yes $75,126 / $15,000 |
11/2013 | Delayed | Delivery might occur in February |
| 26. Jun. 2013 | Peloton Bike | Kickstarter | Yes $307,332 / $250,000 |
11/2013 (US) | Delayed | Probably January in the US |
| 30. Jun. 2013 | Wimoto Motes | Indiegogo | Yes $115,366 / $22,000 |
09/2013 | Delayed | Maybe early next year |
| 10. Jul. 2013 | Lernstift Digital Pen | Kickstarter | No £26,794 / £120,000 |
11/2013 | – | Development is still going on |
| 13. Jul. 2013 | The Plug (renamed to Lima) | Kickstarter | Yes $1,229,074 / $69,000 |
12/2013 | Delayed | Delayed at least until spring 2014 due to software redesign |
| 20. Jul. 2013 | WigWag | Kickstarter | Yes $454,976 / $50,000 |
11/2013 | Delayed | Probably at least 3 months delay |
| 23. Jul. 2013 | Ubuntu Edge | Indiegogo | No $12,814,216 / $32,000,000 |
05/2014 | – | Project canceled, but Ubuntu will be found on other phones |
| 24. Jul. 2013 | Red Pitaya Board | Kickstarter | Yes $256,125 / $50,000 |
12/2013 | Delayed | Delivery now expected for February 2014 |
| 25. Jul. 2013 | Borderless Arduino Board | Indiegogo | Yes $164,303 / $12,000 |
09/2013 | 09/2013 | There was however some issues with some parcels, which are almost resolved now. |
| 2. Aug. 2013 | OVO Media Player | Indiegogo | Yes and No (Flexible campaign) $37,051 / $100,000 |
10/2013 | 10/2013 | |
| 4. Aug. 2013 | The “Smart Charger” | Indiegogo | No $4,306 / $80,000 |
11/2013 | – | Project canceled? |
| 12. Aug. 2013 | HackRF SDR Platform | Kickstarter | Yes $602,960 / $80,000 |
01/2014 | – | |
| 21. Aug. 2013 | SparqEE CELLv1.0 | Kickstarter | Yes $72,155 / $70,000 |
11/2013 | Delayed | Delivery now expected for January 2014 |
| 22. Aug. 2013 | Iteaduino Plus | Indiegogo | Yes and No (Flexible campaign) $6,319USD / $20,000 |
09/2013 | 09/2013 | On-time but shipping without tracking took a long time. |
| 23. Aug. 2013 | Sky Drone FPV HD | Indiegogo | No $30,174 / $80,000 |
12/2013 | – | Project has carried on, and Sky Drone is available for pre-order via their website |
| 29. Aug. 2013 | Flutter | Kickstarter | Yes $149,906 / $80,000 |
04/2014 | – | |
| 30. Aug. 2013 | Pressy | Kickstarter | Yes $695,138 / $40,000 |
03/2014 | – | |
| 7. Oct. 2013 | Wizarm PVR MediaBox | Indiegogo | Yes and No (Flexible campaign) $7,346 / $200,000 |
04/2014 | – | This flexible campaign did not reach their funding target, but backers have been promised to receive the device, as development and production will go ahead |
| 10. Nov. 2013 | Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi | Indiegogo | Yes £2,567 / £2,500 |
04/2014 | – | |
| 11. Nov. 2013 | The VERVE | Kickstarter | Yes $38,617 / $20,000 |
12/2013 | Delayed | Delivery now expected for mid-January 2014 |
| 14. Nov. 2013 | NinjaSphere | Kickstarter | Yes AUD $397,346 / $115,000 |
03/2014 | – | |
| 20. Nov. 2013 | Touch Board | Kickstarter | Yes £122,907 / £15,000 |
03/2014 | – | |
| 21. Nov. 2013 | Neptune Pine SmartWatch | Kickstarter | Yes CAD $801,224 / $100,000 |
01/2014 | – | |
| 22. Nov. 2013 | 1Sheeld Arduino Shield | Kickstarter | Yes $85,210 / $10,000 |
05/2014 | – | |
| 23. Nov. 2013 | Qubi Android Media Center | Kickstarter | No $34,032 / $500,000 |
07/2014 | – | Project will go forward on its own |
| 24. Nov. 2013 | AlmaDom.us | Indiegogo | No $663 / $150,000 |
06/2014 | – | Campaign still in progress (sort of) |
Hall of Shame
Let’s get the projects with the worse possible outcome – backers money transferred to project owner, but perks never delivered – out of the way first. The worst project featured on CNX Software has to be FocusWill Coolship. This Linux keyboard powered by Rockchip RK3066 seemed promising, but the funds have just gone to money heaven, as the devices were never delivered, the Indiegogo page has disappeared, as well as FocusWill website, the company behind the project.
Stealth Nighthawk F-117A, not the fighter jet, but an HDMI TV Stick based on Broadcom BCM2835 (as found in the Raspberry Pi) capable of running XBMC, comes in second. The campaign was never successful, as it raised $7,404 out of $40,000, but the company still got the money thanks to Indiegogo flexible funding option. The company promised the device to backers, but none of them seem to have received it.
Most Projects Are Delayed
Out of the 41 campaigns, 9 projects did not get funding at all. Out of these 9, only 2 or 3 appear to have definitely been canceled, with the others just carrying development and manufacturing on their own. So a total of 5 products will never seen the light of day, meaning although 75.6% of projects get funded, 87.8% of products may be mass-produced. The Crowdfunding reality is probably much lower, as projects getting media exposure are obviously the most interesting ones.
Failure to meet the estimated delivery is a recurring issue with most crowd-funded projects. Many are just delayed one of two, but some others go way beyond that time frame, such as PlayJam GameStick (6-month delay), and the “Plug”, now called Lima, with project completion now estimated to be in spring 2014 instead of December 2013.
Hall of Fame
The Mojo, an FPGA development board which raised an impressive $100,000, well over their initial $7,000 funding target, appears to be the only fully funded project that delivered perks on time. The project was successfully funded on March 24, 2013, and according to updates and comments, the boards shipped in April, just as promised.
Special mentions go to:
- The UDOO board, as they were very successfully with over $640,000 pledge for the Freescale i.MX6 Linux and Arduino boards, and manage to deliver most perks in October (Starting on the 4th), against a promised delivery in September.
- Iteaduino Plus, despite failing to gather the complete funds, still received orders because the project was on a flexible funding campaign, and managed to ship perks on September 2013, just as promised. Actual delivery took a long time however, even 2 months in some cases, due to the shipping method used.
That’s all for today. If you have a good or bad crowd-funding experience to share, feel free to do so in the comments section.
Merry Xmas everyone !!!
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
You did not mention the Parallella board, which you also noticed here: http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/06/30/99-parallella-supercomputer-is-now-open-source-hardware/
thanks for this summary table
Going off topic here sorry but i am going to die if i cannot get a answer. while i was playing around inside my pc something touched the gpu and i saw fire and next i noticed the gpu was making too much noise like when you forget to plugin the power to your gpu the fans tend to go full speed. i think there is no power going from the pcb to the fan and made a video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY6jJiMPRbM just wondering can i use something like rockmans deepcool like the item below or do you guys have… Read more »
Think you shouldn’t restrict yourself to the 2 main crowdfunding platforms…it’s worth noting that PunchThrough Design managed to successfully close about $145k (target: $20k) for Cortado using their own, just a couple of hours ago:
http://punchthrough.com/
I had learnt about them through your blog:
http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/11/27/20-lightblue-cortado-is-an-arduino-compatible-board-programmed-wirelessly-via-bluetooth-le-crowdfunding/
Great survey, thanks for finding time for that! It’s a pity that latest projects didn’t fit in. I understand that it’s too early to make conclusions, but http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/12/02/micro-python-brings-python-to-mcu-boards-and-robots-crowdfunding/ was both a great funding success and very solid project technically. It’s also that type of project where good project planning and marketing make it possible to develop not just hardware, but also software. Hardware comes and goes, but there always should be good software to run it. Recently mentioned NavSpark http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/12/21/15-and-up-navspark-is-a-tiny-gps-gnss-arduino-software-compatible-board-crowdfunding/ is also an interesting project, too bad it’s not going to reach funding with such approach (typical mistake of project… Read more »
@Patola
That’s because Parallela funding took place in 2012 (during my holidays), but I only wrote about it in 2013 when they released the open source code.
@sk
Another successful “self-crowdfunding” project was the Earl tablet: http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/05/09/earl-rugged-e-ink-tablet-for-the-outdoors/
But I chose to skip these. Maybe I should have at least mentioned them at the end.
It is not from 2013 but still worth to mention Cubieboard!
The project with flexible founding has reached almost twice as the pledge of U$ 50.000 and was closed earlier to meet the deadlines! I don’t remember if it did but I am very happy with it.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cubieboard-open-arm-box
A good read on crowd-funding scams:
http://www.gadgetreview.com/2014/01/7-scamtastic-crowdfunding-campaigns.html
Also, some people are reporting/tracking kickstarter scams here:
http://www.kickstarterforum.org/fraud-watch-f13.html
(First link above was from this forum)
This is interesting. I received my Coolship last year. I assumed everyone else did, too. It was kind of a cool project, but the build quality basically sucked. I used it as a bedroom computer with an old HD monitor for about six months. I definitely got my investment out of it. I was hoping for an upgrade board for it, which was one of the selling points, and ended up on this page as a result of searching for one. I guess I’m out of luck.