Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding campaign smashes record, still short of goal amount

With six days to go till the crowdfunding project comes to an end, Canonical’s campaign on Indiegogo to develop the Ubuntu Edge smartphone has smashed the record for the largest ever amount for a project of this sort. The campaign broke a long-standing record held by the Pebble smartwatch for most amount raised by a crowdfunding project. 

Pebble’s record – of having raised $10,266,844 – was broken at 8:30 AM IST this morning byUbuntu Edge smartphone. Earlier, the campaign had broken the record for being the fastest to raise $2 million in under eight hours and then went on to raise $3 million in under a day.

Smashing records

Despite all these record winning moves, it looks like a tall task for the campaign to raise its goal amount of $32,000,000 in under six days now. This despite the fact that last week Ubuntu Edge received its first corporate backing in the shape of Bloomberg, which pledged $80,000 for its “Enterprise 115” package. 

While trying to raise a record amount of funds to power the production of the smartphone that will run both Android and Ubuntu’s mobile operating system, Canonical has been announcing new support tiers for the campaign. Earlier, the company had offered only two tiers that let users either pledge $600 (Rs 35,400 approx) or $830 (Rs 49,000 approx). Late in July, Canonical announced that one could get their hands on the smartphone by pledging $625 (Rs 36,900 approx), $675 (Rs 39,900 approx) or $725 (Rs 42,800 approx) on the Indiegogo campaign. The $600 offer, which was touted as a "One-Day-Only" offer, has now been replaced with the other tiers. All the 5,000 slots for the $600 offer were filled up within a few hours of the campaign going live.

Canonical announced the Enterprise Starter Kit along with the record breaking feat. The Kit is aimed at small businesses looking to back the Ubuntu Edge. It gets them 10 phones, along with access to an online workshop and 14 days of online support for $7,000.