Beekeeper Invention Sets Record for Most Money Raised on Indiegogo The Flow Hive honey tap raised $5.3 million on the San Francisco-based crowdfunding platform.

By Catherine Clifford Mar 9, 2015

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The magic of crowdfunding is that you just never really know what is going to catch fire. Like, say, who would ever think that a beekeeper invention would get people so many people so excited?

Today, San Francisco-based crowdfunding platform Indiegogo announced that the Flow Hive beekeeper honey tap is now the most funded project in the site's history, raising $5.3 million.

With the Flow Hive, invented by a father-son duo, a beekeeper can tap honey without opening the hive and without upsetting the bees in their honeymaking. Even if you haven't ever made honey yourself, you can probably understand why this is such a massive plus; anything that minimizes upsetting bees is a good thing.

For those of us who haven't actually harvested honey, here's a wee peek into what is involved: First, there's a whole lot of protective gear. Then you have to smoke the hives to sedate the bees and transport the hives to a place where they can be processed. After that, the hives have to be cut and put into an extractor to remove the honey. Throw in the process of cleaning all that backup, and you can see why it's such a daunting task. Not to mention that you're on the clock: All of this has to happen before the bees wake up.

With a the Flow Hive, you turn a tap and honey flows out of the homes into containers. Win!

The Flow Hive, which goes for $600 on Indiegogo, has been incredibly popular since day one. Not only did it hit its $70,000 funding goal in 477 seconds, but it went on to bring in $2.18 million in 24 hours, the most money ever raised on Indiegogo in a single day. So far, the Flow Hive has raised donations from more than 11,600 contributors.

While the Flow Hive holds the No. 1 spot on Indiegogo, the $5.3 million it has raised is still far less than the funds raised by the Pebble Time smartwatch, the top-earning project on rival crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. The second-generation Pebble smartwatch, which still has 18 days left in its campaign, has brought in more than $17 million.

Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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