Kickstarter is virtually synonymous with crowdfunding, and it's not hard to see why.
Since the platform launched in 2009, Kickstarter has raised $368 million for projects that met or passed their goals and has helped launch nearly 80,000 projects in total. In fact, one month after launching in the U.K., Kickstarter had already generated more than $3 million worth of pledges from 45,000.
Just as importantly, there have been several blockbuster success stories ranging from Double Fine's adventure game, which raised more than $3 million in a month to the Pebble watch, which raised more than $10 million by the end of its Kickstarter campaign.
However, there are dozens if not hundreds of crowdfunding tools online and more will certainly launch in the future now that President Obama has signed the JOBS Act, which loosens restrictions on startups raising money from individuals online. Recently, several of these crowdfunding websites have started to gain traction and funding of their own.
We've rounded up a few crowdfunding services that could give Kickstarter a run for its money in the future, as well as some of the services that have applied a new twist to Kickstarter's model.