Karolina

What Karolina does

Karolina Fund ehf is a privately held Icelandic company headquartered in Reykjavík that operates a self-serve crowdfunding marketplace connecting project creators with individual backers. The platform enables creators to launch funding campaigns for creative, entrepreneurial, and community initiatives, while allowing backers to discover and pledge funds in exchange for rewards or pre-products. The platform supports multiple campaign lifecycle states — Funding, Executing, Finished, Accepting members, Aftersale, and Marketplace — indicating functionality beyond one-time pledging into ongoing membership and secondary commerce. The platform is a member of the Nordic Crowdfunding industry association and targets the Icelandic domestic market under a horizontal segmentation model.

As of reporting, the platform has facilitated 911 funded projects with a 78% funding success rate, involving 176,732 participants and €5,559,182 in cumulative pledges (lifetime GMV, not company revenue). Karolina Fund operates as a self-serve marketplace accessible via its website, using Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and an email newsletter for community engagement and top-of-funnel acquisition. The company is registered as a public limited company under Icelandic law (ehf designation) with registration number 460712-1570. No app, no API, and no disclosed integrations are present.

The business model follows the standard crowdfunding marketplace template — a take-rate on pledge volume — though no pricing, fee structure, or revenue figure is publicly disclosed. The firmographics data lists 72 employees, which appears inconsistent with the platform's observed scale and may include unrelated operations or be a data error. No funding rounds, institutional investors, M&A activity, leadership disclosures, or AI/ML capabilities are present in the available data. Geographic scope is described as Nordic regional, though actual operations are concentrated in Iceland.

Name

Karolina

Legal name

Karolina Fund ehf

Website

https://karolina.io

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Karolina Fund is an Icelandic crowdfunding marketplace based in Reykjavík that enables individual project creators to launch funding campaigns and connects them with backers to finance creative, entrepreneurial, and community initiatives.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Crowdfunding Marketplace

akta.pro primary industry

Creator Fundraising & Crowdfunding Platforms (Recurring/Project-Based) (MPACAFAJ)

Keywords

• Crowdfunding platform
• Reward-based crowdfunding
• Project funding marketplace
• Community funding
• Creative project financing

Headquarters

HQ city

Reykjavík

HQ country

Iceland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Karolina Fund operates an online crowdfunding marketplace where project creators can launch campaigns to raise pledges from the public for creative, entrepreneurial, and community initiatives. Backers browse, discover, and financially support projects in exchange for rewards or pre-products, with the platform tracking funding progress, subscriber counts, and campaign deadlines across statuses such as Funding, Executing, Finished, Accepting members, Aftersale, and Marketplace.

Product overview

Karolina Fund is a single-platform crowdfunding marketplace. The core offering is the Karolina Fund platform itself, which allows project creators to launch funding campaigns and backers to discover and pledge to projects. The platform supports multiple campaign statuses including Funding, Executing, Finished, Accepting members, Aftersale, and Marketplace stages.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Karolina Fund Crowdfunding Marketplace A self-service online crowdfunding marketplace enabling Icelandic project creators to launch funding campaigns for creative, product, artistic, and community initiatives, and allowing individual backers to browse, pledge, and track progress.
• Market Square (Aftersale Marketplace) An aftersale and marketplace section within Karolina Fund where projects can continue to offer products or rewards after their initial funding campaign concludes, enabling backers to purchase items from successfully funded projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• 78% funding success rate across 911 projects
• +1 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Nordic CrowdfundingminorOthersKarolina Fund is a member of the Nordic Crowdfunding association (nordic-crowdfunding.com), indicated by the displayed logo on their website. This membership suggests participation in a regional industry body for crowdfunding platforms across Nordic countries.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Patreon: Recurring membership funding platform for creators. Comparable to Karolina Fund's 'Accepting members' and 'Aftersale' campaign states, and shares the model of monetizing ongoing creator–fan relationships rather than one-off pledges.
• Kickstarter: Global reward-based crowdfunding platform and the category-defining player. Directly comparable to Karolina Fund on core mechanics (creators launch campaigns, backers pledge for rewards) and target user (creative and product entrepreneurs), though operating at vastly larger global scale.
• Indiegogo: US-based reward-based crowdfunding platform with flexible funding and a strong technology/product category focus. Closely comparable to Karolina Fund on campaign model, target creator (innovators, hardware startups), and backer experience.
• Republic: US multi-modal crowdfunding platform spanning reward, equity, and revenue-share campaigns. Comparable in offering creators a full lifecycle from funding to ongoing investor/member engagement, mirroring Karolina's multi-stage campaign states.
• Crowdcube: UK equity-crowdfunding platform for growth and earlier-stage companies. Comparable marketplace mechanics and European SMB focus, though the funding instrument (equity) differs from Karolina's reward-based model.
• GoFundMe: Largest donation and personal-cause crowdfunding platform globally. Comparable crowdfunding marketplace mechanics and backer UX, though tilted toward personal, charity, and emergency use cases rather than creative/reward-based projects.

Regional players

• Ulule: France-headquartered European reward-based crowdfunding leader with a strong presence across the EU. Comparable to Karolina Fund on reward-based model, creative/entrepreneur target creators, and pan-European community orientation.
• Startnext: Germany-based reward-based crowdfunding platform serving German-speaking creative and social projects. Comparable on crowdfunding mechanics and European SMB/creator focus, with similar stage-gated campaign lifecycle as Karolina Fund.
• Companisto: Berlin-based equity and silent-participation crowdfunding platform. Comparable European SMB/entrepreneur customer base and Nordic-adjacent DACH market footprint, though it operates a different funding model (equity vs. reward-based).
• FundedByMe: Stockholm-based Nordic crowdfunding platform supporting both equity and reward-based campaigns. Most directly comparable to Karolina Fund on geographic adjacency, Nordic market focus, and the Nordic Crowdfunding association network.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/karolinafund
• Facebookfacebook.com/karolinafund
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/karolina-community-idea-engine

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Karolina