The Globe and Mail | Richard Blackwell | July 3, 2014

International crowdfunding company Indiegogo is launching its iPhone app in Canada on Thursday, the first of what will be a global roll-out of mobile versions of its fundraising technology.

Indiegogo, the largest of the hundreds of global crowdfunders, said Canada was chosen because of the diversity of fundraising campaigns here, and the large amount of feedback it gets from Canadian customers.

After a couple of months of testing in Canada, the app will be made available in the United States and other countries, Indiegogo chief executive officer Slava Rubin said in an interview. By the end of 2014 the app will also be available for Android devices.

“This year we made a commitment to advance in mobile,” Mr. Rubin said, because of the dramatic increase in use of phones for all kinds of transactions. In fact, he said, “if I was launching a new company like Indiegogo today, I would probably do mobile only.”

View:  Canadian Crowdfunding Directory

The new app will take advantage of the location-based features in mobile phones, Mr. Rubin said, as well as the connections in customers’ phone address books.

Canada is Indiegogo’s second largest market, and has seen a 50 per cent increase in the amount of money raised this year compared with last. The company started up in Canada in 2008 and now allows campaigns in French and the use of Canadian dollars on its site.

Crowd funding allows individuals to raise money from the public to fund a project or a startup venture. These can range from video games to computer applications to documentary films to books.

Continue to the full article --> here