I spent 2015 tracking every tech product launched on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. By the end I had a list of 257 products from all over the world. Here are some of the things I found….
Global Leader
One of the first things I noticed was how often the state of California appeared as project location. 77 times I counted, making it the hottest place in the world for hardware startups. Most of the Californian projects were in San Francisco as expected but not so expected were how many of them had European founders. It seems the valley is evolving it into an international hub rather than the traditional American ‘boys in their garage’ place.
Global Race
America leads the global stage by far taking 57% of the share with Europe a distant second at 27%. However the European share is growing fast, launching 10 products in December 2015 compared to just 1 in January 2015. Within Europe, Germany, France and the UK are the biggest players taking about two thirds of the European share. Other parts of the world are catching up too though like the Far East having launched 24 campaigns in 2015.
Global Expression
What’s more interesting are the different styles appearing in different parts of the world. European products express thoughtful, beautiful design with Miito, Noki and Batband as notable examples. America is master of marketing, launching all the blockbuster campaigns including Sondors, Skarp and G-RO. But the Far East is also impressive, producing some small but innovative campaigns like cZur, Seed and Ola. Overall this global diversity is fantastic for the future of hardware.
