CBC News  |  Last Updated: Aug 6, 2013 2:16 PM ET

Crowdfunding campaigns can launch as soon as Sept. 9

Canadians who want to crowdfund a film, video game or other project can now start building a page on Kickstarter, for public launch as soon as Sept. 9.

U.S. crowdfunding giant Kickstarter announced on its blog Monday that effective immediately, Canadians were invited to click on the "start your project" button on the company's homepage. Canada has now been added to the U.S. and U.K. in the drop-down menu that pops up.

The New York City-based Kickstarter announced in June that it would soon start allowing projects from Canadian creators. As of Tuesday, the company's own statistics say it has helped raise $627 million for 109,294 projects since it launched in 2009, including the high-profile Pebble smartwatch, Ouya gaming console and Veronica Mars movie.

Kickstarter takes five per cent of the money raised by projects that meet their fundraising target, while another three per cent plus 20 cents per pledge typically go to the company that processes the payments. Funders do not pay the money they pledged and Kickstarter does not receive any money for projects that don't meet their fundraising goal.

In conjunction with its Canadian launch, Kickstarter is hosting a series of meetups and workshops across the country over the next few weeks, which are posted on its Canadian homepage. As of Tuesday afternoon, events in Toronto and Montreal between Aug. 8 and Aug. 13 were sold out.

Links and Resources:

Kickstarter Events in Canada:   We'll be in Canada the next few weeks hosting Kickstarter meetups, workshops, and more. If you have a project in mind and want to run it by us, or if you just want to learn more about Kickstarter, we hope you’ll come out and say hello!

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