CMON leaves Kickstarter behind, strikes exclusive deal with Gamefound

After a staggering 12-year run on Kickstarter, board game publisher CMON will take its crowdfunding and pre-order business exclusively to Gamefound. The founder of the Polish crowdfunding platform, speaking with Polygon prior to the announcement, said he was unable to disclose the terms of the agreement. What is certain, however, is that this maneuver marks a massive change in the relationship between Kickstarter, long the leader in the crowdfunding space, and one of its biggest competitors.

“At CMON we always look to innovate and provide the best products and experiences for our customers,” said David Preti, CMON COO, in a news release. “Gamefound has a number of excellent features that our fans have been asking for, and we feel their platform is a great fit for us as we move into the future. We want the consumer experience to be as smooth as possible, and Gamefound gives us the tools we need so we can focus on creating great games.”

“Both sides are happy with [the agreement],” Gamefound CEO Marcin Świerkot told Polygon in an email.

Gamefound exited beta in early 2022, its growth accelerated in part by a significant investment from Disney Lorcana publisher, Ravensburger. After falling short of its ambitious goals that year, the company rallied — nearly doubling its income from crowdfunding in 2023 to more than $56 million. Its revenue growth parallels Kickstarters’ own tabletop revenue decline, which appears to have fallen by a reported $43.8 million over the same two-year period.

Meanwhile, San Francisco-based BackerKit recently spun up its own crowdfunding business, which exited beta in July 2023. While the company has not yet logged a full year of crowdfunding revenue, it has grown largely by courting disaffected Kickstarter users. High-profile converts include Gloomhaven and Frosthaven publisher Cephalofair Games, whose multi-title project called Gloomhaven: Grand Festival brought in more than $5 million on Backerkit.

The sheer volume of crowdfunding projects run by CMON can’t be overstated. Since 2012, it has run nearly 60 successful campaigns on Kickstarter alone, earning on average more than $1.9 million for each one. Its business accounts for an impressive $108,628,027 on Kickstarter, or more than 5.4% of the Brooklyn-based company’s cumulative earnings from tabletop crowdfunding over the last 12 years.

CMON’s latest campaign, currently on Gamefound, is for A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics, a miniatures skirmish game starring characters from George R.R. Martin’s novels. It has so far earned more than $860,000, and has less than a week left to go. Delivery is expected by February 2025.