Kickstarter, the crowd-funding platform famed for recently securing Amanda Palmer over $1.2million, has launched in the UK today (October 31).

The site takes 5% of each successful pledge and has so far raised over £211m ($340m) since its launch in 2009 with over 70,000 projects pitched. The success rate currently stands at around 40%.

Speaking to the BBC, head of community Yancey Strickler said: "The request to expand internationally has long been one of our most requested features.

"We ...