Six-month-old crowdfunding platform ToGather.Asia leads the growing crowdfunding scene in Singapore.
The website was founded by fourth-year business administration undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, Mr Bryan Ong, 24. On his website he describes ToGather.Asia as an “Online platform for creative individuals in Asia to turn their dreams into a reality.”
Through the site, two Singaporean independent bands have raised a total US$3,232 (S$3,946) to fund the release of their EPs, with one of the bands, Cashew Chemists, raising more than its funding goal of US$1,000. When contacted the band decided not to comment on their success.
Cashew Chemists have raised more than US$1000 crowdfunding through ToGather.Asia
Two regional bands have also used ToGather.Asia to fund European tours for themselves. Malaysian band Tenderfist has raised US$682 (S$835) while Indonesian band The Trees and The Wild have raised over US$3000 (S$2,555) to tour Germany and Finland.
Crowdfunding is where entrepreneurs ask internet users to pledge various sums of money to fund their projects. They do so by advertising these projects as campaigns on crowdfunding websites, detailing how they plan to bring them to fruition and how much money they need to do so.
People who back their projects, called backers, can then donate amounts specified by the creators of the project. Depending on their contributions backers can receive the finished product or service upon completion.
The site is not amongst the first attempts to introduce crowdfunding to Singapore. they are however one the few with success.
Pioneer sites such as 8squirrels, firecracker.sg and Spark Facility show no ongoing projects and have become dormant.
This trend has not stopped budding crowdfunding platforms from emerging with another, Crowdonomic set for its soft launch next month.
According to a survey by crowdfunding industry watcher crowdsourcing.org, 452 crowdfunding platforms worldwide raised almost US$1.5 billion for more than one million projects last year.
Crowdfunding first started in the US with Kickstarter in March 2009. The website, which has successfully raised US$344 million to date also hosts the current overall record holder Pebble Technology, which raised almost US$10.3 million for its e-paper watch Pebble in May.
Written by Scott Driscoll for TP Sphere.
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