Crowdfunding on sites such as GoFundMe, Crowdcube, Kickstarter and Indiegogo can give a boost to financing small businesses. These sites allow businesses to pool small investments from several investors instead of seeking out a single investment source. As such, many non-traditional technologies and business models appear on these sites.

In years past, crowdfunding for businesses was a novelty, a rare exception to the traditional methods of bank loans, venture capital and borrowing money. Now, utilizing crowdfunding campaign is just as common as any of the other options. In 2016 crowdfunding was expected to surpass venture capital as a means of financing.

The easiest way to search for relevant business and technology opportunities on the crowdfunding platforms is to run specific searches aimed at the target concepts. I.e. autonomous car + site:kickstarter.com