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News of 01/07/2015

Eppela is the most important Italian crowdfunding platform, does the race with Kickstarter but in 2014 generated 10 million investment.

Musicians, filmmakers, documentary makers, writers, programmers of video games, to be involved in the phenomenon are tens of thousands of projects each year, that of crowdfunding platforms are a showcase that allows them to build an audience.

In the United States, thanks to platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the mode of funding from the bottom of artistic and creative, or crowdfunding, has spread in recent years to move up to millions of dollars on projects and ideas of individuals, offering so a potential and alternative methods of financing and traditional production for art and entertainment.

In Italy we are no less, although there are still many - both public and in the experts - not to have understood the greatness and the growing interest of the Italian market of crowdfunding, with over 60 platforms of all types and almost 10 years of experience, is trying to offer to artists and creative people of all kinds a viable alternative financing and production.

Eppela is a key player in the scenario of Italian crowdfunding and has 4 years of life. Eppela, in the taxonomy of the world crowd is defined as a reward-based crowdfunding generalist. Which means that, as Kickstarter, is based on the logic of "all or nothing", working on achieving complete budget that can be levied only goal achieved.

"Eppela was born in mid-2011, but actually began to operate in early 2013," explains Fabio Simonelli, Project Manager and shareholder Eppela, heard from Linkiesta. "The first year and a half we spent more communication and dissemination of what it was the phenomenon crowdfunding, with considerable difficulty to understand and accept what the system. Difficulties that are added to those for online payment - limited at that time only to paypal - and, more generally, the digital divide, which in Italy is a problem that persists, even if slowly difficulties are weakening ' .

In what way?
Be ', first of all because it has increased, thanks to the widespread use of smartphones, as instruments of labor, access to Internet of Italian and also their willingness to buy on the web, which in the past two years has greatly increased. And, secondly, there were projects funded by Kickstarter and Indiegogo in America who have reached astronomical figures and have become real news, spread to Italy, and they have driven the sector and have spread also to the concept before an audience that had never heard of.

"In 2014 we got 10 million investment, with a growth rate that was confirmed in 2015, when only in the first quarter, we generated nearly 7 million '

What numbers are we talking about?
In the first year and a half of activity Eppela generated 150 thousand euro of investment projects, a very low figure. Since 2013, things have changed, primarily because it has changed the payment system, which also extends to credit cards. So, in 2013, we generated approximately one and a half million euro investment. In 2014 there was further growth and we arrived around 10 million investment, with an excellent growth rate, whose trend was confirmed in 2015, given that in just the first quarter we generated a collection of almost 7 million .

In addition to the payment system, what has changed? What are the factors that generated this increase?
Certainly there is the factor - decisive - the spread between the public knowledge and acceptance of the system crowdfunding. Another important point is that we have identified a new business model in which we are joined participatory three big reality-wide corporation, or the Italian Post Office, Fastweb and Unipol, whose participation in the financing of certain projects has accelerated our growth increasing the attractiveness of Eppela to users.

How do these actually take part in the co-financing?
In some types of projects involved with 50 percent of the budget made available to designers grant, co-financing that takes to achieve autonomous project of some of the planned budget, greatly accelerating the fundraising of these projects. We say that the presence of these three major interlocutors did do in Eppela a big step, both for visibility and for attractiveness.

On what types of projects they invest?
Then, as regards the Italian Post Office, the type of project was initially that of projects related to the field of mobile apps and everything to do with the innovation and the web. Fastweb is involved in projects of robotics and automation, shortly launch a new call of Fastweb will cover another area of the market, but that still can not disclose details. Unipoli instead co-finances projects in the field of mobility, and security, with the intervention of the foundation Unipol, also of cultural projects and environmental sustainability.

"Music is one area in which we approached recently, but which promises a remarkable development"

And what about the world of the entertainment industry?
On this juncture there was recently a novelty. Italian Post has opened its coparticapzione entarteinment some projects, in particular to the music. It is a sector that promises significant development and so we launched a contest in early May that has a unique pattern. He is giving away a co-financing grant for projects that first reached 50 percent of funds raised, but also allows the first five projects that do are to challenge each other to win the chance to open the concert Subsonica in Rome July 20.
It is an experiment of double rewarding: a part of funding and a possibility, very valuable to a group that is self-produced and which has the support of a major label, to get in front of an audience so large and important as that of a summer concert Subsonica, who will count the presence of 30 thousand people, which is already sold out for a while '.
The music was a channel that we had never explored, because it was a bit 'distant from our experience. With this experiment we realized the potential of the sector. Think that only with this contest we received 700 project proposals in 18 days, among which we have selected 30 to be put online. And 30 new projects online in a sector in which we were not even present, for us are very important and mark a huge increase in volume of traffic, but also awareness of the platform.

"The model of financing through crowdfunding is spreading also to the difficulty is getting bigger slices of the country, in accessing funding through the traditional ways"

Why crowdfunding is becoming so attractive to the world of creativity?
The model of financing through crowdfunding is spreading also to the difficulty is getting bigger slices of the country, in accessing funding through the streets say traditional investment funds and banks, for example. Even so, talking about creative projects, budgets are relatively low and, even if there are funds or banks willing to lend you this money, the rates applied make them unattractive well: if you ask 10 thousand euro, within five years must ridarne maybe even 16.

Crowdfunding right now is very attractive, and it is especially for creative projects because, working with budgets not too high, allows you to put your ideas to the test of the market and, if your idea works, to obtain financing that covers 100 percent of production costs grant, so without having to pay anything, least of interest, either in equity or in shares to your business, as in the case of start-ups.

"We're not talking about putting a like, to make a share or vote: we are talking about money, funding from the bottom that make possible the development and production '

What role can the crowdfunding in the entertainment industry of the future?
I believe it can become very important, because in some ways the crowdfunding is also a test mode of an idea and a product to market. And as for the artistic products, creative and entertainment, this is a very interesting possibility, both for individual artists / creative, both for the producers themselves. Because here we are not talking about putting a like, to make a share or vote: we are talking about money, funding from the bottom that make it possible to develop and produce an immense variety of artistic projects that, without crowdfunding, maybe they would never have seen the light. This seems to me an interesting manner to all sectors, not only for the entertainment industry. Because when you are able to put together 300 or 400 people who believe in your idea and are willing to finance it with 30, 40 or 50 euro, you have an audience, you have a market, you have climbed over that which is the barrier to entry of doors of a bank, of a financial or a business angel. It can also be an intermediate step, because when you present yourself with a public / market of 300-400 people who believe in your project you have a lever of interest more to banks and potential investors.
The example of music I think it works very well: think of a group that wants to record his first album. If it goes to a production company with a demo, as it was once, it's really very difficult even to be heard, because it is a bet in the dark for investors, who rightly can not afford, in this context, especially, to bet money the risk of work loss. Crowdfunding instead allows the group to test their ability to create a market, in full autonomy, asking directly to the public if he believes in them and, if able to put together a sufficient critical mass to produce a disc, and do it. We are talking about small numbers, but in reality they are not so much. If you try to load an album on iTunes for beginners, up to 100 trading it is very difficult, and in that case the costs of the production have already incurred. With the crowd on the other hand, once produced your album, as I said before, this small niche audience that believes in you become expendable in the eyes of producers, whose bet at this point would not be completely in the dark.

"Kickstarter can offer an audience of potential investors incomparably larger than ours, but a project on Kickstarter is one among a thousand, and that is why it is very difficult to get off"

Last question: the opening of the Italian market Kickstarter is the arrival of a competitor or an excellent opportunity of flying for everyone else?
So, if I thought that Kickstarter is a competitor of Eppela I would inept. The size of the market can not be compared. But above all, I do not think we do the same battle. If it is true that Kickstarter, with its millions of users, it can offer an audience of potential investors much larger than ours, it is also true that a project on Kickstarter is one among a thousand, and that is why it is very difficult to make his way in showcase. And there are two things to consider: the first is that if you launch a project on a platform as Eppela and need help, advice or support, you write to us within an hour and a half and we've responded, while on Kickstarter you only have available tutorials. The second is that for Eppela a project that never came to fruition is a failure, while for Kickstarter is one of thousands that are not working. That's why we follow much the projects from the beginning, pre-selecting the projects and working with designers to, those that can be successful, they have.
In any case, the arrival of Kickstarter has stirred up a lot of enthusiasm, it is true, both journalists - who have spoken as the salvation for the Italian ideas - both in users, and for sure there will be many people who will try to launch their ideas through Kickstarter. But I believe that this enthusiasm will deflate in a few months, because at some point you will understand that Kickstarter is just a big showcase, and that projects are successful if they are winning ideas and if they are well cultivated and well presented, aspects in Kickstarter which has little or nothing.

[Source: linkiesta.it]



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