East-West Digital News 2 October 2012
Young Russian film makers, musicians, fashion designers, game developers and tech innovators are now offered a new way to raise the early stage financing they need. Several Russian language crowdfunding platforms have been developed lately, allowing would-be creators and entrepreneurs to advertise their projects and secure financing based on Internet users’ micro donations.
Backers are rewarded in various ways, from receiving a slice of the revenues generated by a successful film or music album to being able to enjoy the pre-release edition of a new product.
Only a few weeks after its launch, the newest of these platforms, Boomstarter.ru, is hosting hundreds of projects. For some of them, crowdfunding has exceeded expectations: a cartoon named ‘My Heart‘ has received 89,000 rubles, almost $3,000, or 149% of the sum that had been requested, 11 days before the deadline that had been set for receiving donations.
Few tech projects so far
Boomstarter’s technology section has not been the most successful so far. Currently, it contains just three projects, none of which has raised significant sums to date.
“This platform looks too young and hence risks being of little use to us,” a startup entrepreneur said in an exchange with East-West Digital News. “The US platform Kickstarter is more appealing to tech projects in terms of both financial and PR impact,” he believes.
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