Natural food company, Righteous Limited has achieved its funding target of £75,000 in five weeks on the equity-based crowdfunding site, Crowdcube.
82 investors have put up the money in return for a 15 per cent stake in the London-based business that sells its products in, Harvey Nichols, Whole Foods Market, Tesco and Waitrose.
Established in late 2009, Righteous has experienced rapid growth, with its turnover rising from £15,000 in 2010 to £120,000 in 2011. It expects to reach £0.5 million by the end of 2012.
This award-winning start-up is the UK’s first ‘all natural’ salad dressing brand with its great-tasting dressing that is preservative-free, gluten-free and 100% vegan.
The 33 year-old founder, Gem Misa turned to crowdfunding after researching bank loans and angel investment. She says: “The repayment rates with the banks were too high and I was worried about the control that business angels might take over my company if I went down that route.
In contrast, crowdfunding was relatively straightforward on Crowdcube, even the legal and administrative process after the full funding was reached.
“I like crowdfunding because it offers the best of both worlds: I get the finance, but just as importantly, I now have a group of investors who are evangelists for my brand as well. They really believe in our natural approach to food and therefore want to be a part of it.”
With her background in marketing and brand management at Unilever, Ms Misa will use the £75,000 for an aggressive marketing strategy to make Righteous a major player in the salad dressing market.
This includes building awareness amongst British consumers with supermarket pricing promotions and a TV advert.
Raising the capital in a few weeks will make a big difference to Righteous growth. “Accessing our funds relatively quickly means a lot to a small business like ours because we are still in ‘survival mode’ in the supermarkets. The store buyers expect us to perform as well as the bigger brands owned by multinational companies with big budgets. With these funds we can develop a big marketing campaign that will make more people aware of Righteous salad dressings and the great benefits and taste we offer,” says Gem Misa.
Crowdcube has now funded five pitches so far in 2012 bringing the total to 14 pitches since July 2011. The total investment successfully secured is now over £2.5 million.
Other recent companies to fund include:
– Get Site Tracked, the UK’s first affordable, professionally built, search optimised website package for sole traders has raised £100.000 from 29 investors. The 25 year-old owner, Sebastian Lewis, will use the capital to expand his tele-sales and web building teams. He says: “The economic crisis has affected everybody, but for someone my age going into a bank and asking for my loan options, unless you own a house or a sizeable asset they won’t even entertain your business plan, so crowd funding and Crowdcube in particular was the answer we were looking for.”
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– Universal Fuels: This fast growing oil supplier founded by 20 year-old Oliver Morgan, raised £100,000 with 83 investors.
www.Crowdcube.com
