Welcome back to Funding Insider’s Top Kickstarter Campaign series! In today’s article, we’re going to share our picks for the top projects on Kickstarter in January 2025 and analyze what strategies these campaigns used on their way to success.

1. Aeke K1 Smart Home Gym 

Amount Funded: $1.3 million

Coming in at the top of our list is the Aeke K1 Smart Home Gym. With 600 backers and over 1.3 million dollars in funding, this project has certainly caught our attention.

This home gym offers a compact, foldable space to do all kinds of exercises. But they also combine this space with AI-based biometric analysis and custom workout recommendations. If you’re familiar with today’s tech trends and Kickstarter backers’ tendency to support exercise products, it should as no surprise to you why this campaign has gained so much success.

But one particular thing worth pointing out about this page is just how many reviews this product has. 

AEKE managed to secure 5 YouTube reviews that they then uploaded on their Kickstarter page. Maybe just 1 review could have been enough, but remember that this product costs upwards of $2,000, and that’s a BIG ask for a Kickstarter project. 

AEKE getting so many influencer reviews was certainly costly, but looking at their funding success, I’d say that this gamble worked out in their favor.

2. Looktech AI Glasses 

Amount Funded: $841K

The next campaign we’re featuring on today’s list is a pair of AI glasses from Looktech.

The success of this campaign is interesting considering how Google Glass was unsuccessful in its attempt to be brought to market way back in the 2010’s. Perhaps the integration of—you guessed it, AI—into the Looktech Smart Glasses has softened consumers doubts about smart glasses?

One thing we would like to draw attention to is the quality of the images on the Looktech page.

In our interview with the Kickstarter team, a piece of advice they gave us was to use images that show off your design. And Looktech implemented this idea brilliantly by using a series of GIFs with deliberately selected fonts, icons, and background imagery. It’s clear that an expert designer worked on these images and that the Looktech team placed these images in the page with a clear intention.

3. Decadent Collectors Editions by Willow Winters 

Amount Funded: $260K

This next campaign may be a bit out of left field, but it’s one we want to draw attention to nonetheless. Coming in at #3 is a collection of romance books by author Willow Winters.

Kickstarter is a place where you can fund all kinds of creative projects. But what might make a collection of books enticing compared to the gizmos and gadgets of the design and technology category?

It’s worth pointing out just how accomplished a writer Winters is. This best selling author has built a strong fanbase over her years of writing, including 7 previous Kickstarter campaigns.

When you have a past record of Kickstarter campaigns, it shows potential backers that you’re a trustworthy creator, making them more likely to support your project. Also, all the people who supported your previous campaigns will generally give you their email. That means they will hear about any future projects you will be launching in the future, which they will be significantly more likely to support.

4. Z-ROPE+ by Zest Up

Amount Funded: $166K 

The last page we’re going to go over today is the Z-ROPE+ Adjustable Home Battle Ropes.

Z-Rope+ by Zest Up is a reimagined version of battle ropes that gets rid of all the bulk and discomfort of battle ropes by incorporating a spring mechanism.

One strategy that Zest Up used in their campaign was to include a screenshot capture of comments from their previous campaign.

We’ve talked before about why having a previous record of success is important. But showing that success on your page helps persuade some of those people who aren’t quite sure that they should move forward and support your campaign.

All of these strategies—YouTube reviews, high quality images, consecutive campaigns, and featuring previous backer comments—are excellent ways to get the most out of your Kickstarter campaign. We recommend using as many as possible when planning your own campaign!

If you’re interested in further crowdfunding tips or getting help with campaign planning and execution, feel free to reach out to us! We’re always happy to help.