Astropad off to big start on Kickstarter fundraiser

Astropad's Luna Display hardware piece is attracting attention.

August 30, 2017 at 5:49PM

Astropad, a 2015 Minnesota Cup entrepreneur sweepstakes grand prize winner, has raised about $370,000 in a several day-old Kickstarter campaign to finance its latest product.

Online publication Tech.Mn says it's the most lucrative crowdsource fundraiser since those of Spark and SmartThings, both of which subsequently moved to California.

Astropad was launched by co-founders Giovannie Donelli and Matt Ronge two years ago to create what's become a popular application that lets artists illustrate directly on an iPad without hookup up to a computer.

Astropad Marketing Director Savannah Reising said the fundraiser runs through Oct. 19.

Proceeds will go toward the initial manufacturing run of Astropad's new Luna Display. She described the thumb drive-size product as "a tiny key that you plug into you Mac display port and it turns your iPad into a second display for your Mac."

The company, which employs six and is based at entrepreneur-hub Coco in Northeast, is pre-selling the product on Kickstarter for $65; said to be less than others will pay once the product goes into production with a yet-unspecified manufacturer.

Ronge told Tech.Mn several days ago that nothing approaches the quality of Luna Display. And Techcrunch.com just gave it a thumbs-up review

"We didn't expect it to happen this fast and by so much," Ronge said. "We're definitely in the hardware business now."

The product should start to arrive to customers next spring.

Reising said revenue will double this year for the third year in a row but but declined to cite a dollar figure.

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about the writer

Neal St. Anthony

Columnist, reporter

Neal St. Anthony has been a Star Tribune business columnist/reporter since 1984. 

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