When it comes to taking great ideas to market, Indiegogo knows a thing or two. For years, the crowdfunding platform has been helping entrepreneurs secure the funds they need to bring turn their dreams into tangible products and services. Now, a new partnership with Arrow Electronics hopes to make it easier still for entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life. On Friday, the two companies announced their collaboration with hopes of creating a “new crowdfund-to-production platform aimed at accelerating the pace of innovation for technology and Internet of Things (IoT) entrepreneurs.”
The brand new integration brings Arrow’s comprehensive design and production platform directly onto Indiegogo’s crowdfunding engine, allowing qualifying Indiegogo users with immediate online access to Arrow’s suite of design tools, engineering experts, prototype services, manufacturing support, and even supply chain management. User eligibility will be determined by the projects’ technical feasibility, manufacturability, and overall impact.
“This is a completely new model of social funding, innovation and production in the technology and IoT space. Crowdfunding has never before been integrated into a fully scaled innovation platform like this that spans collaborative online design, prototype support, production and supply chain management,” said Matt Anderson, Arrow’s chief digital officer. “The Arrow-Indiegogo collaboration will enable successfully crowdfunded companies to scale faster than ever before to bring their products to market.”
Arrow, which has been in business since 1935, has long served as a global provider of electronics and related services, but now it’s reaching a brand new audience in the form of budding businesses. Some Indiegogo campaigns will be granted discounts on bills of materials and technology-design software, and access to dedicated design engineers by way of Arrow.com’s live video collaboration platform.
“We’re very excited for this collaboration with Arrow, as it strengthens our commitment to helping entrepreneurs through every step of their journey,” said Indiegogo CEO David Mandelbrot. “We’ve seen an incredible amount of growth among tech and IoT projects on Indiegogo due in part because our team is constantly developing new ways to help entrepreneurs with support beyond funding. Collaborating with Arrow is a superb example of how Indiegogo partners with entrepreneurs through every phase of the entrepreneur’s lifecycle.”
