Fundedbyme, the Swedish Crowdfunding startup, has made a partnership with Internetfonden (the internet fund) to support and strengthen internet related projects through crowdfunding. Internetfonden gets its money through the surplus income generated from .se domain-name registrations, and its charter requires it to finance projects that promote the development of the internet in Sweden.
Since 2004, the Internet Fund has financed approximately 170 projects with a wide variety of descriptions, but historically to get funding one must apply to an application round offered in the winter and summer of each year. The types of projects financed by Internetfonden focus on development, applied research, the spread of internet skills and usage, or “other projects which by other means invasively develop or utilize the internet.”
On FundedByMe if the project is supported at least 50% by the crowd, Internetfonden will match up to 100% of the project’s funding goal. The first amount of financing requested may not exceed 200 000 SEK, and the results must be reported within one year. Internetfonden is looking for innovative projects that meet its criteria, and the applying companies must be based in Sweden.
FundedByMe was launched in March of 2011, and has raised over $1.1 million through the site. This movement of mixing crowdfunded money and public financing is growing in Sweden, as it acts as a way to extend public money and act as a filter to ensure worthwhile projects are funded. This mixing of public and private money sounds familiar to the concept behind CrowdCulture, another Swedish crowdfunding site which finances public art with matched crowdfunding donations from local governments.
If you speak Swedish, you can find more details on the FundedByMe blog post.
