Kickstarter opens to Dutch projects

The biggest crowdfunding platform in the world has existed for five years, and has now opened its doors to the Netherlands. Kickstarter has already got the first Dutch-made products in waiting for funding. 

There have been Dutch Kickstarter projects in the past, but these always needed an American contact person to arrange payment. From Tuesday onwards, everyone will be able to propose a project independently.

Derk Reilink is one of the first designers in the Netherlands who has had a success with the Dutch Kickstarter way. He developed the cello-tape holder ClickTape. "A barrier for many entrepreneurs is investment costs. At Kickstarter, the consumer pre-finances, whereby you can go and make the product."

Reilink's invention clicks around a roll of tape, which has several advantages. "You can find the start of the roll easily, and all types of rolls fit on it." His product will be online tomorrow.

Dutch crowdfunding websites such as Voordekunst.nl and Cinecrowd.nl may suffer from the competition that an internationally-recognized project such as Kickstarter provides.