Kickstarter Is Adding Australia And New Zealand To Expand Its International Crowdfunding Network

Today, crowdfunding platform Kickstarter announced that it is going Down Under. It is opening up its network to Australia and New Zealand-based projects “in the very near future.” The move comes just two days after the site opened its doors to Canada, and comes some months after it went to its first market outside the U.S., the United Kingdom.

Kickstarter, which has funded over 48,000 projects and raised $780 million, has yet to launch an official presence in non-English speaking countries, although as you can see from searches such as this one for France, there are still a number of projects already underway in that country, anyway.

The difference when Kickstarter launches a local presence is that those posting projects can accept pledges in local currencies — although those pledging, as before, can come from anywhere. As with other international launches, it’s likely to guess that Kickstarter will keep fees consistent. Currently Kickstarter takes a 5% fee on funded projects and no fee on those that don’t meet their goals. Processing fees for pledges, meanwhile, are also at 5% plus some cents for those under a certain amount (in Canada, for example,

Yes, Kickstarter will charge a 5% fee to successfully funded projects and no fee to unsuccessfully funded projects in Canada.

Payment processing fees for Canada-based projects are similar to those for UK projects. For Canada-based projects that just launched, the processing fees are 5% + $0.05 CAD for those pledges less than C$10, and 3% + C$0.20 for those greater.

The increased local focus should give Kickstarter a kickstart Down Under. Currently in Australia there are only 41 projects listed for Australia, for example.