Crowdfunding website Indiegogo has introduced a new insurance option for its project backers. For a $15 additional insurance fee, backers are guaranteed to receive the items they have supported or take their money back if the product doesn’t arrive within three months. Mashable has the full story below:
Image Source: mashable.com
Crowdfunding websites don’t always have the best reputation. There’s no real guarantee that backers will ever receive the items they’ve supported, and we’ve seen this time and time again with failed, fully-funded projects across various platforms.
It’s widely believed that Indiegogo is the less reliable rival to Kickstarter, but now, the site is testing out an insurance option on a specific project to give backers peace of mind when putting money into it.
Indiegogo confirmed to Mashable that a stress-management wearable called Olive is the first project on the site to offer product insurance. If you spend an additional $15 for insurance, a backer is guaranteed his or her money back if the product doesn’t arrive within three months of the estimated delivery date.
The optional insurance, which costs $15, was first spotted by TechCrunch.
“Indiegogo regularly develops and tests new features to meet the needs of both contributors and campaign owners,” a company spokesman said in a statement to Mashable. “This pilot test is currently limited to this individual campaign.”
The Olive device, which monitors heart rate, temperature and suggests stress management exercises, has already met its $100,000 backing goal, with nearly $180,000 of funding.
Image Source: mashable.com
Even though Indiegogo has a sometimes-questionable track record, critics have lashed out against it for continuing to host projects that appear to be fraudulent. Indiegogo has more relaxed rules that allow flexible funding, for example, so crowdfunding campaigns can keep money without meeting their goals.
Indiegogo declined to elaborate beyond its statement that it was testing insurance fees out on the single project, so it’s unclear if this will be expanded beyond Olive any time soon.
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That device sounds cool 🙂
nice guarantee you got there indiegogo!
I think I need that Olive stuff, been stressed lately.
Hope every site does that kind of policy.