KICKSTARTER, ONE OF the most popular crowdfunding sites in the world has launched in Ireland today.

The US site, which has seen more than $1.3 billion (€1 billion) pledged to projects on its site, will now allow Irish people to set up their own projects on the site.

Previously, Irish creators would have to set up a project on the site by collaborating with another person or group based in the UK or US. Now they will be able to set up their project on the site directly which will go live for funding on 21 October.

The addition of Ireland means the service is now available in ten different countries like the UK, Sweden and Denmark.

When the site announced its $1 billion milestone back in March, it revealed that Ireland had seen 13,300 backers pledge more than €1.7 million to projects on the site.

The service enters a crowded field where other Irish-based crowdfunding services are established.

Services like FundIt, Business to Arts’ service for non-commercial projects, LinkedFinance, which focuses on crowdfunding for Irish businesses, and PledgeUp, a service which is focused on fundraising, have grown in popularity over recent times.

Read: A fridge that monitors medicines takes top prize in Ireland’s first hardware hackathon >

Read: Here’s an idea, let’s stick a glass house on the side of a cliff >

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