(From top) Priyanka Agarwal and Anshulika Dubey

The Pebble smartwatch has become a rage in the US. But this time last year its manufacturer (Pebble Technology) had no clue where the funding would come from. After starting a project on Kickstarter, a popular crowd-funding site, the company raised over $10 million. What Kickstarter has done for crowd-funding projects in the US, Wishberry is doing the same in India. Since launching its crowd-funding platform in 2012, Wishberry has helped crowd-fund several projects, including the album (Attuned Spirits) of singer Vasuda Sharma. A t2 chat with Wishberry co-founders Priyanka Agarwal (also CEO) and Anshulika Dubey (also COO)…

What made you start Wishberry?

Priyanka: It launched in 2010 (crowd-funding came in 2012) as a traditional online wedding gift registry platform as we felt a personal need for a crowd-gifting application in the wedding space in India. We extended our platform to the social fund-raising space in 2011 by offering it to Teach for India’s Mumbai marathon runners. Early in 2012 the team witnessed the buzz around Kickstarter’s crowd-funding model for creative projects in the USA.

Anshulika: In April 2012 Wishberry extended the platform to filmmakers, theatre groups, musicians to help fund their projects. We are also receiving campaign requests from aspiring entrepreneurs looking to raise funds for their start-ups in spaces such as mobile applications, fashion and social enterprises. We have funded over 100 projects in the creative arts and entrepreneurial space… amounting to Rs 1 crore. It runs across several categories –– films, music, theatre.... This year we have discontinued working in the charity crowd-funding space (example, raising funds for marathons for NGOs).

Kickstarter changed the way projects are handled in the West. What has been the response to Wishberry?

Anshulika: We have crowd-funded over Rs 2.5 crore across 500-plus campaigns supported by 8,000-plus contributors.

Priyanka: A few sectors that we are looking to tap more aggressively in the near future include product and service entrepreneurs. For example, a couple of students from BITS Pilani successfully crowd-funded the launch of their online stock market education platform called Brainbought.com.

What are some of the early projects that became successful on Wishberry and helped the movement?

Priyanka: Our first success story in the film space was that of Srinivas Sunderrajan, who crowd-funded Rs 5.26 lakh for the post-production and marketing of his film Greater Elephant. In the music space, Aazin Printer raised Rs 3 lakh for his first solo album (The Original Mr. Printer) after breaking away from the band Something Relevant. In terms of crowd-funding campaigns driven by individual entrepreneurs, Saritha Thomas from People’s P.ow.e.r Collective would be the most successful… it has so far raised Rs 806,000 from 46 supporters across 18 cities worldwide to fund her rural community radio initiative.

Anshulika: Aditi (Gupta) and Tuhin’s (Paul) comic book [the project also includes Rajat Mittal] is a big success story. They are soon going to launch a comic book on menstruation called Menstrupedia. It’s a book to educate girls. They raised over Rs 5 lakh though their target was Rs 4 lakh.

Any Calcutta-specific projects that Wishberry has completed so far?

Priyanka: Well, one of our first film campaigns was the One Rupee Film project (2012-13). [The FB description of the project says it’s a 90-minute docu-fiction about independent filmmaking in India. The project has two other crowd-funding partners –– Indiegogo and Funduzz.com.] It was a great learning experience for Wishberry in understanding the film crowd-funding space. We are about to launch three crowd-funding campaigns for Calcutta’s biggest music bands looking to fund music videos and albums.

How does one get a project started on Wishberry?

Anshulika: First, a form needs to be filled out. The entry is evaluated for proprietary-related issues and, if approved, he/she is taken through a 10-day process during which Wishberry team mentors prepare the applicant. And then the project goes live.

How are funds collected?

Anshulika: We allow online and offline fund collection. People can use credit/debit cards to make online payments. One can also get cash/cheque collected from one’s doorstep. We also allow international payments.

Finally, what happens to a project that doesn’t meet its target (doesn’t get enough money through crowd-funding)?

Twenty per cent commission (of the amount that gets raised) is charged by Wishberry for campaigns that don’t reach their targets. Several global crowd-funding platforms charge a higher commission for campaigns that don’t reach crowd-funding targets... they follow what they call the flexible funding model. Wishberry too follows this trend to encourage campaigners to drive their marketing and outreach efforts with passion and sincerity to make an honest attempt at crowd-funding.