Halifax Startup On ‘Cloud 9’ After Wildly Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
HALIFAX — The Halifax startup behind the latest advance in renewable energy has quadrupled its initial funding goal in just a few days, after a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign.
Aurea Technologies blew its funding goal out of the water last week when it raised more than $200,000 through Kickstarter for its water bottle-sized, portable wind turbine.
“It sort of blew our minds. We didn’t expect to have the response that we did,” Aurea’s founder and CEO Cat Adalay told Huddle on June 16.
Adalay said Aurea’s success on Kickstarter has her questioning why Atlantic Canadian startups aren’t paying better attention to what she believes is a very powerful platform.
She said Aurea’s crowdfunding campaign took off almost the moment it began and things never really slowed down.
Shortly after the Kickstarter page went live, orders began rolling in. Aurea’s goal was to raise $50,000 over the course of the campaign. Two hours in, they had passed it.
After 24 hours, the campaign had brought in more than $100,000. Four days later, the company had completely sold out of their first run of 500 units and raised more than $200,000.
“The numbers for us, we couldn’t believe it, we were sort of stunned,” Adalay said.
She recalled a team meeting after the campaign launch where everyone giddily celebrated their mounting success.
“We were all exhausted because it’s been a lot of work. But we’re all so happy that our labour of love has been recognized,” she said. “We were all just on Cloud Nine.”
Part of the point of the Kickstarter campaign, Adalay said, was “testing the waters” of their product, both in terms of demand and price point.
“We wanted to validate the need and show the problem we were solving was actually a problem,” Adalay explained.
She said feedback from Kickstarter backers shows Aurea is solving the problem they thought they were — and likely many they didn’t think about.
Many people have told her they want to be able to charge laptops and other, more power-hungry items while they’re off the grid – and they see Shine as a possible solution.
Adalay is already thinking about how to include a 12-volt charger on Shine turbines in response to their requests.
She says the insights her team gleaned, as well as the hype (and money) the campaign generated, are all reasons she believes crowdfunding is underutilized in Atlantic Canada.
“One thing that’s really struck me throughout this entire process is … how out of the loop Atlantic Canada is when it comes to crowdfunding,” she said.
She said crowdfunding is a “massive industry” but that Aurea had to turn to the United States to find the support and expertise it needed to help execute a campaign.
“Atlantic Canada could be really missing out on a number of opportunities if we don’t find the support and expertise needed locally. I think that’s something that’s really missing here,” she said. “People around here need to stop being afraid of crowdfunding.”
Adalay hopes Shine’s success on Kickstarter makes other Atlantic Canadian startups start taking platforms like Kickstarter more seriously.
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