I predict that people will find that getting a direct-deposit in their bank account...
Would people actually get paid by direct deposit? Out of curiosity I created an account to find out a bit more. I may be missing something, but I didn't see any way to link a bank account so I'm not sure how they would get paid. There is a withdraw button under the amount of available funds, but it's disabled since my balance is $0 so I can't determine how people would get money out. Even weirder, the only way I saw to invest is to pay by credit card. I wonder who eats those processing fees? Not only that, it could lead to some dangerous decisions for those who manage credit poorly. Imagine someone putting an "investment" on their credit card because of emotional attachment to a brand they want to support and then carrying the balance. I know they're a startup and I'm guessing it's much easier to process payments through a credit card as opposed to a bank account, but I think that if they want investors to take them seriously they need to get rid of credit cards completely and let users link a bank account.
I feel like the business model is really similar what skyrefuge said. I'd phrase it as: I like [some really obscure brand], so how can I support them? By loaning them money so they can buy more inventory and by purchasing their products. Especially since if you invest they actually try to sell you some of the company's products that you're investing in. The customer engagement benefit sounds more like a benefit to the businesses than the investor. Sure the investor may feel good supporting a business they like, but the business gets to borrow money from their existing customers to sell them and others more of their products. I feel like they're targeting consumers instead of investors: I think most investors don't care about having a level of engagement with their investment - they simply want to maximize the return on their investment while minimizing risk and work.
My other concern is that if it does take off, there are too few small businesses to make the platform viable for a large number of investors. The loan amounts I've seen on Kickfurther so far are pretty similar the personal loans on Lending Club. However, there are many more individuals looking to borrow money than there are small businesses that are looking to borrow money and meet their criteria. I've heard that Lending Club has had problems with too many investors in the past, so I really don't think Kickfurther would be able to keep up with a large investor demand unless the businesses on there started borrowing vastly larger sums of money.