Kickstarter rival BackerKit follows $4m Gloomhaven campaign success with official launch from beta

BackerKit has officially launched its bid to take on crowdfunding giant Kickstarter, after capping off a year of beta testing with the huge success of Gloomhaven’s Grand Festival on the platform.

Gloomhaven publisher Cephalofair was a high-profile loss for Kickstarter when it revealed it was switching to BackerKit’s newly-announced crowdfunding programme last summer, having previously raised close to $18m over seven years of Kickstarter campaigns.

The company made the jump in the wake of Kickstarter’s determined push to use blockchain technology for its platform – a strategy it has since heavily rowed back on in the wake of pushback from creators.

The timing was perfect for BackerKit, which launched its crowdfunding operation 12 months ago after a decade as a Kickstarter pledge manager and back-end services specialist.

Cephalofair has raised more than $4.2m for the Gloomhaven’s Grand Festival, with about a day and a half of the campaign to go.

That raise is easily BackerKit’s biggest yet, outdoing the $2.05m raised last year for Restoration Games’ second printing of Return to Dark Tower.

BackerKit has now launched the crowdfunding service out of beta to users in 32 countries.

Company CEO Maxwell Salzberg said many of the platform’s features were the result of observing creators hack gaps in “legacy platforms”.

He said, “We’ve watched creators work around gaps in existing platforms. It’s been a guide for us on our build.

“We’ve also been careful to build a platform that encourages, and often even insists, that creators involve backers in the creative process.”

Salzberg added, “We believe in the transformative power of crowdfunding, and its capacity to turn the creative process into a collective effort.

“We are excited that backers can play a crucial role in providing feedback, building communities, and ultimately helping people create strong, resilient businesses of all sizes.”