iPledg – StartupSmart

Crowdsourcing has been a big success for several Australian businesses, but the relatively newer, broader crowd-funding trend has yet to make it locally. Bryan Vadas and Andy Tompkins are attempting to capture that opportunity with iPledg, a crowd-funding site that allows organisations or individuals to fund any project they want.

Any commercial, creative or charitable venture can post a project and then the community decides whether to fund it or not. Users might seek to raise money to make an iPhone app or help out a charity with some new equipment.

Vadas says there’s a gap emerging at the bottom end of the funding ladder and the pair founded the business after noticing too many good ideas were going to waste.

“Crowd funding does not involve investment, losing a share in one’s creative endeavours, or taking a loan. It is also a low risk way to test the viability of projects at early funding stages,” he says.

But there’s still a problem in educating the market, Vadas says, although the message is well received once it’s understood.

“Once we are able to explain what it is and what we do, we have had governments, universities, industry bodies, businesses, and individuals all embrace the concept,” he says.