Crowdfunding Raised $1.5 Billion Last Year, Poised to Raise $2.8 Billion This Year [Study]

Crowdfunding platforms around the world raised roughly $1.5 billion combined last year, Massolution says. An industry report released by the research group says that there were 350 crowdfunding platforms at the end of 2011, up 50% from the start of the year.

Massolution says that approximately one million campaigns were hosted by these platforms, for an average of nearly 2,900 campaigns per platform. The average amount of money that a single campaign raises is less than $700, however. Although we all know the story of Pebble, which is on pace to raise $10 million from Kickstarter.

The report forecasts that more than 500 crowdfunding platforms will exist globally by the end of this year, and that 2012 will see up to $2.8 billion raised from them, nearly double 2011’s amount. Carl Esposti, director of Massolution, says he conducted the study after seeing too many industry reports not based on hard data.