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NEWS
Pebble Time Kickstarter raised more than $20M with more than 95K watches pre-sold
On February 24, Pebble Technology Corp. again took to Kickstarter to crowdfund its latest product, the Pebble Time smartwatch. The Kickstarter campaign came to an end on February 27 and over the course of the month-long campaign Pebble raised more than $20 million in funding from 78,463 backers – smashing its initial goal to raise $500,000.
In the process, Pebble Time also smashed two other Kickstarter records. The first record came on the first day of the campaign when it became the fastest project ever to raise $1 million. It took Pebble Time only 49 minutes to hit the million-dollar mark. Just a week later, Pebble Time hit $13.3 million in pledges and overtook Coolest Cooler to become the most-funded Kickstarter campaign ever.
In 2012, Pebble also turned to Kickstarter to fund the original Pebble smartwatch after venture capital firms were less than keen to invest in the company. Pebble initially set out to raise $100,000 for the Pebble Watch on Kickstarter but smashed that total when the campaign closed with more than $10 million in pledges from 68,928 backers.
The latest Kickstarter campaign covered two new smartwatches: the Pebble Time and the Pebble Time Steel. Both models feature a new timeline interface for event notifications, a color e-ink display, a microphone for voice replies and up to seven days of battery life.
Pebble’s Kickstarter campaign by the numbers
Adding up the number of Pebble Time and Pebble Steel watches included at each reward tier, Pebble managed to pre-sell 95,906 smartwatches to 78,471 backers during the campaign. That number breaks down to 59,966 Pebble Time watches and 36,940 Pebble Time Steel models.
In order to hit its stated shipping goals, Pebble has to ship 48,690 Pebble Time watches by May 2015 and 29,997 Pebble Steel units by July.
The first 10,000 backers got their Pebble Time watches at $159, and the next 23,000 backers paid $179 for theirs. When the Pebble Time hits stores, it will cost $199.
Backers who opted for the Pebble Steel variant got their devices at $250 instead of the $299 it will cost when it arrives in stores.
Image via getpepple.com
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