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Kickstarter is on pace to collect $1 billion in pledges this year

Kickstarter is on pace to collect $1 billion in pledges this year

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Even if growth slows a bit, the company could easily break this milestone

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kickstarter growth chart
kickstarter growth chart

Back in April I predicted that Kickstarter would raise over $300 million in pledges in 2012, triple what it did in 2011. Well the numbers are in, and the crowdfunding platform turned in an impressive $319 million in pledges last year. If this growth continues, Kickstarter could reach $1 billion in pledges by the end of 2013.

The jump from $300 million to $1 billion certainly seems more dramatic and difficult than the tripling Kickstarter pulled off in 2012. But it wouldn't be impossible. Kickstarter grew 238 percent in the last year. Even if that growth slowed by 10 or 20 percent, Kickstarter would still get to $1 billion by the end of this year.

Perhaps more importantly, Kickstarter has begun expanding internationally. Up until October of this year, while anyone around the world could donate, the platform was only open to project creators in the United States. Since then Kickstarter has launched in the U.K., and co-founder Yancey Strickler told the BBC that the company is interested in expanding to numerous locales across the globe. While America is certainly one of the biggest pools of available funding, each new nation that Kickstarter turns on activates a lot of new potential for growth.

Kickstarter only keeps 5 percent of what gets pledged when a project succeeds, so their actual revenue is far below the total number of dollars pledged. But with more than 40 percent of projects succeeding, that would still add up to a very healthy $20 million or more in annual revenue for 2013. The company has been hiring steadily and is moving into new, much larger offices in Brooklyn. And the money flowing in from pledges is not its only option for expansion. Having only raised $10 million in venture capital so far, Kickstarter could easily nab a big injection of cash to spend on international growth.