London tech city challenger Crowdrooster offers first end-to-end, design-led crowdfunding community and reveals 6 professional projects seeking £135,000 in funding

London, UK – November 15 2013 –Crowdrooster, a product focused crowdfunding community with an e-commerce twist, launches [6] projects internationally. Crowdrooster fuses micro-finance with retail therapy and empowers shoppers to shake up the financial order by pre-purchasing the products of tomorrow. Launch projects include new concepts and designs from bespoke Italian skateboard brand ATYPICAL and eclectic handcrafted furniture company Experience de Vita.

Crowdrooster is based in the heart of London’s TechCity at the exclusive technology incubator Level39. Level 39 selected Crowdrooster through an application process of 160 startup companies. The reasoning behind Crowdrooster’s selection is due to their innovative approach to crowdfunding and ecommerce. Crowdrooster is founded by young entrepreneurs Alessandro Rovati, Francesco Fumagalli and Francesco Gatti.

Influenced heavily by the design community, Crowdrooster has been launched to offer trend-setters the opportunity to invest and own high-end bespoke, pre-production technology and lifestyle products. Crowdrooster also offers established brands a lower risk environment in which to fund and test consumer appetite for unique product designs. In total the 6 launch projects are seeking £135,000 in crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is an alternative funding model en vogue, raising £1.7 billion in 2012 alone. Hardware projects are regularly the most popular and highest-funded, yet 85%[1] fail to deliver the finished article. With this in mind, it’s Crowdrooster’s mission to further professionalize crowdfunding. Backed by an advisory board and mentors within the Level 39 technology incubator, which includes VP of Finance at JP Morgan, Michele Barbara, each project is carefully vetted to ensure the highest possible completion rates. All projects featuring on Crowdrooster are from registered companies, with proven prototypes, a clear business plan and established supply chains.

Michele Barbara, Vice President – Finance at JPMorgan, explains why Crowdrooster is an exciting addition to the finance world: “As an alternative to traditional finance options, crowdfunding has huge potential. However, for hardware projects seeking large sums of investment, featuring alongside a mix of unvetted personal projects has a limiting effect. By carefully vetting projects to ensure the highest possible completion rates, Crowdrooster is tackling this obstacle head-on creating a more professional environment in which to seek investment.”

Crowdrooster quote: Alessandro Rovati, co-founder, Crowdrooster said “What started as a simple idea for a crowd funded e-commerce app, rapidly evolved into a fully fledged community where designers and innovators can gather to access funding, endorsement and support for their project ideas. In a few years’ time we want Crowdrooster to be a robust and trusted source of social capital for brands, as well as playing a vital role in delivering trend-setting and best-selling products of the future.”

Crowdrooster project, Luca Boffi, commented on the launch: “We’re thrilled to be one of the first companies to launch on the platform. We’ve been looking for a way to test out our new products and gain feedback from savvy shoppers in an environment that echoes our own customer experience as well as providing a professional approach to crowdfunding in line with our company’s quality standards. Crowdrooster provides the perfect springboard for us to do just that”.