Crowdfunding is so flexible it can be considered for virtually anything, as these crowdfunding case studies demonstrate. It can be local, it can be international, and everything in between. At one end of the scale I met a student who used crowdfunding to pay her tuition fees, and a market stallholder who wanted to buy fabric to make her next clothing collection. At the other end, the fintech startup Revolut used equity crowdfunding in its earliest days.
Here is a selection of some successful crowdfunding case studies. These were not my clients, they are simply a range of crowdfunding projects that demonstrate the wide flexibility of this means of raising an investment budget to accelerate company growth, and product sales and development.
After a previous failed attempt, Circular Ring delivered one of the most successful wearable healthtech crowdfunding campaigns ever, raising over $4 million from thousands of global backers.
A Cornish startup that recycles the plastic content of fishing nets found that proof of concept conferred by receiving a grant was a springboard to crowdfunding success
The founder of a platform that connects mental health patients with therapists outlines her step-by-step approach to equity crowdfunding that resulted in 146% overfunding
Body Rocket helps cyclists and triathletes improve their performance, and used both reward-based and equity crowdfunding as part of a launch strategy
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A brand of fruit-flavoured tequila found that winning awards provided convincing proof of concept to support crowdfunding success. 
Equity crowdfunding enabled a sexual wellness and adult dating company to raise over £2.4m for expansion in a business sector institutional investors may be wary of entering.
Fintech startups, such as Kroo Bank, often use crowdfunding as marketing to acquire customers as well as raise money
In 2023, the 97 year-old cycle manufacturer Pashley Cycles proved that equity crowdfunding isn’t just for startups
Borrow A Boat is an “Airbnb of boating.” A presence at the Southampton Boat Show, one of the largest of its kind in Europe, plus a high level of media coverage, helped its fourth round of equity crowdfunding to succeed
An Essex couple used successful reward-based crowdfunding in 2016 to validate their new business idea and de-risk their first production run of bamboo toilet paper. In 2017 they used equity crowdfunding to sell shares in the company. 
Skully used donations-for-rewards crowdfunding as a sales channel to generate pre-order sales of their technologically advanced motorcycle crash helmets
After narrowly missing promotion, fans of a non-league football club used crowdfunding to boost the club’s budget for new players the following season
Kino-mo developed unique advertising platforms where moving 3D images can be projected on bike wheels or appear to be floating in mid-air.
A crowdfunding project was launched to raise £19,150 towards restoring one of the last surviving Royal Navy vessels that served in the Gallipoli campaign in WW1.
A politically motivated community project wanted to raise its voice and create an impact prior to the May 2015 General Election.
A donations campaign for a small company making scented candles relied on a very emotional and personal pitch
Loan funding launched a company introducing the elderly to the internet and social media
A £20,000 campaign asked for donations and loans to develop a drought resistant potato that doesn’t need pesticides
Swiss company Urban Games raised £211,780 (€250,000) to develop a business simulation game based on becoming a train tycoon
£50,000+ of equity investment financed a new craft-beer brewery in south east London
A £30,000 crowdfund to launch an ‘ethical supermarket’ in Brighton
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