Investors are betting that Quirky can build a sizable business. The company has raised $185 million to date. General Electric, the nation’s largest manufacturer, has put in $30 million, as part of a partnership to experiment with faster-paced models of manufacturing.
…Quirky takes 90 cents of each dollar of product sales. The other 10 cents is distributed among the inventor community. The person who came up with the product idea typically pockets 4 cents of that. Lesser shares go for contributions like enhancing the idea, choosing the price or coming up with the name.
…Quirky, with nearly 300 employees, is growing fast. The company is private and does not make public its financial reports, but Mr. Kaufman says Quirky’s revenue more than doubled in 2014, to $100 million.
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