Crowdfunding for Funding? Success Stories (Yes, it's possible!)

Is it possible to raise enough money through crowdfunding to launch and even sustain a project over time? Yes, and it doesn’t matter whether these ideas are product-oriented or service-oriented. Beyond well-known examples such as the Statue of Liberty in New York (the amount raised for its construction is considered the first crowdfunding in modern history), the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, or the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris (along with those related to the creation of movies, books, records, etc.), here are examples that will inspire you:

Bluesmart: $2 million, 10,000 people. Tomás Pieruci and Diego Gil were the Argentine entrepreneurs behind this suitcase with a built-in battery (remember this detail, because it’s important). Thanks to it, your carry-on luggage would lock if ordered from your smartphone, an alarm would sound if you moved away, you could charge other gadgets… It even had a positioning system to locate it, and thanks to another device in the handle, you knew how much it weighed. Unfortunately, the 2018 regulation banning batteries in hand luggage (Bluesmart was not removable) on most airlines forced the company to close.
Loog Guitars: $350,000, over 2,000 people. This Uruguayan company specializing in guitars for children was born with the goal of bringing music to. Thanks to crowdfunding, it reached the international market.
La casa de la historia: 50 million Colombian pesos. The publicist Diana Uribe also made use of crowdfunding to create a website where she could share different content (in various formats) explaining current events from a historical perspective.
Diário do centro du mundo: R$ 174,000, 2,364 people. Journalism in Brazil has become intimately related to crowdfunding in the last decade. The most successful case in the sector was this website; between 2011 and 2015, it conducted seven campaigns and met its goal in all of them, raising R$ 174,000.
Novelistik: 850,000 pesos, 30 people. This Mexican social platform for self-publishing e-books, founded by Alberto Lujambio and Dave Aroesti, turned to crowdfunding to raise a quarter of its Series B (i.e., the second round of venture capital investment).
Go Parity: the crowdfunding platform for sustainable projects. In just three years, this Portuguese startup, created to bring together socially conscious investors and sustainable project leaders, supported nearly 50 ideas with a total of 2.2 million euros. Moreover, it avoid the emission of 8,386 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
Sono Motors: 53 million euros. This German company has opted for an electric solar car, the first low-cost, mass-produced car of its kind. Its fundraising goal was very ambitious, but they achieved it in record time, one month, through crowdfunding. As they explained, over 75% of the over 50 million raised came from customers who had reserved a unit; another 19% came from investors, and the remaining 6% from various loans and donations.
AllPlants: £4.5 million in two months. The case of this company that delivers frozen vegan food to your doorstep is an example of how to leverage a very loyal community: they asked their customers, using the same communication channels and language they had always used with them (friendly, inclusive), to help them grow. “You can invest in AllPlants via crowdfunding […]. This will give you the opportunity to own a part of the company as it expands across the UK, Europe, and beyond. You can invest from £35 to over £100,000. You will be involved in all our campaigns, launches, and activities,” they explained.
Star Citizen: the biggest campaign in history. The gaming industry is one of the biggest users of crowdfunding. One of the most successful cases is Star Citizen, projected by Chris Roberts in 2012: a space simulator that set a fundraising goal of half a million dollars. In one month, it had raised 2.1 million just on the platform where the campaign was launched; Roberts’ own website raised it to 6.2 million. But it didn’t stop there: the fundraising continued over time, and in 2015, just before reaching 40 million dollars, the Guinness World Records recognized it as the largest crowdfunding campaign in history. In 2022, it reached 500 million. However, this case is not free of controversy, as the project is so massive (including A-list actors in Hollywood) that as of September 2023, it still hadn’t been launched.
KMINA: €22,000, 300 backers. This company’s crutches have a radical design change compared to traditional ones: they don’t cause pain in the hands. But to manufacture the molds, KMINA needed nearly €100,000. They decided to raise the first €20,000 through product crowdfunding, offering one of their crutches, in the future, to users who invested at that time. With this, they would also validate the need they had identified in the market. A total of 300 people were interested, raising €22,000 and pre-selling 400 crutches.
Nanka: closed operations in days. This restaurant chain was one of the first companies to carry out a crowdfunding operation in Peru; it needed a working capital loan and successfully closed the first round. The financing system was so efficient that they launched two new operations; both closed in days.
Laboratoria Chile: $15 million in 45 days. This social entrepreneurship project teaches programming to women (18 to 35 years old) without university education, aiming to reduce the gender gap in the IT industry. After an initial course, the organizers saw there was demand, but they had no more funds. They requested $15 million in 2015 and raised it in 45 days.