Slovenia-founded startup Bird Buddy has raised almost $3.2mn from over 10,000 backers on Kickstarter to finance its new smart bird feeder and smart bird bath products. 

Bird Buddy started out developing a smart bird feeder that allowed people to see videos of birds feeding in their gardens, and went on to create a range of smart birdhouse products. 

As of June 15 the company had received pledges of $3,139,884 from 10,134 people for its Smart Hummingbird Feeder and smart bird bath, data on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter showed. 

“WOW, what an incredible 30 days! Our Kickstarter campaign has officially come to an end, but our journey to helping you connect with your backyard wildlife is only just getting started!” Bird Buddy wrote on social media as its campaign came to an end. 

“ A heartfelt thank you to all of you, the members of our community, that continue to make this wild and wonderful ride possible!” 

According to the company, $1mn was raised in just two hours after the launch of its latest 30-day crowdfunding. The amount raised was close to three times the target of €92,000. 

The Smart Hummingbird Feeder, priced at $174, captures photos and videos and uses an AI-powered bird recognition system to identify the tiny birds.

The Smart Bird Bath also has an AI-powered camera and aims to attract a wide range of birds to users’ gardens.  

Bird Buddy was launched in the pandemic year 2020 by entrepreneurs Franci Zidar, Ziga Vrtacic and Kyle Buzzard in mid-2020 with the aim of reconnecting people to nature with their smart bird feeder. It received backing from Slovenia-based early-stage venture capital firm Silicon Gardens Fund II and its partners. 

It went on to raise $5mn in a Kickstarter round in January 2021, followed by an $8.5mn funding round from venture capital firms Backed and General Catalyst later the same year to help the startup accelerate its growth. 

The company, which has employees in both Slovenia and the US, has benefited from the renewed interest in nature sparked by the social isolation during the pandemic. At the time of the 2021 investment Niko Bonatsos, managing director of General Catalyst, commented: “Today, there is massive pent up demand to connect with nature, even as life starts to go back to normal.”