Ukrainian startups raised $1.895 million on crowdfunding platforms as of middle August 2017, which is four times more than the initial funding target, the press service of the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) has reported (UVCA.eu).

The press service said that Ukrainian startups are increasingly coming out on crowdfunding platforms, including the world's largest ones: Kickstarter and Indiegogo. A total of 35 campaigns have been launched at Kickstarter and Indiegogo, since the beginning of 2017. Their goal is to search for the first customers and orders, additional PR and market analysis. Also there are some more experienced projects that have in the "stock" several successful campaigns.

The association said that according to the results of the first seven months, 2017 has already become one of the "richest" for successful crowdfunding campaigns in the history of Ukrainian startups.

"According to the annual Investment market Overview by UVCA - most start-ups received seed stage investments in 2016. Crowdfunding platforms can be an excellent alternative for earlier stage products. Also, the campaign success will be an additional argument for potential investors," Executive Director of UVCA Olha Afanasieva said.

The association said that it is important to note that most of the projects (83%) have successfully raised the necessary amounts.

Kickstarter is more popular among Ukrainian developers, 27 campaigns (77% of all projects) were launched on this platform in 2017. In turn, Indiegogo is used as an additional channel for raising funds. For example, start-ups Luciding, Senstone, Hushme practiced parallel launch of promotional campaigns on two platforms at once.

"Obviously, projects are more carefully prepared for access to crowdfunding platforms: they are thinking ahead of PR strategies and working with future backers," Head of the UVCA research committee Marianna Yarosh said.

According to UVCA, the most successful campaigns in 2017 by the criterion of the ratio of the declared goal and collected funds were: Jollylook (The First Cardboard Vintage Instant Camera), which managed to collect $ 377,000 instead of $15,000 initially declared; Senstone (Stylish wearable for capturing spontaneous ideas on the go) - the project raised $370,000 in total and UGEARS Hurdy-Gurdy (unique mechanical musical model) - managed to collect more than $290,000.

Unfortunately, there is not always an opportunity to determine the "ownership" of the project to Ukraine, almost half of the projects indicate their location in the United States. This is due to their focus on the global market. But in recent years, more often you can meet Ukrainian cities in the description of projects, UVCA said.