10 challenger brands that smashed their crowdfunding targets in 2021

Grubby

Recipe kit start-up Grubby proved investor appetite for plant-based remains strong earlier this year, when it smashed its £720k target on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

The company, which has served more than 50,000 meals since launch in May 2020, raised over £1m to grow its business through product innovation, speciality add-ons and an enhanced digital experience.

It said £684k was raised from angel backers, including Skyscanner founder Bonamy Grimes, WorldFirst founder Jonathan Quin and Instant Offices Group founder Rob Hamilton, prior to starting the campaign. An additional 519 crowd investors have now joined the business, which is valued at £5.1m.

Heura

Another plant-based brand to exceed expectations this year was Spanish start-up Heura, which hit its initial €1m target on the Crowdcube platform and overfunded to €4m in less than 24 hours.

Among the 3,007 investors backing the business were former Manchester United and England international Chris Smalling, who has also invested in natural energy drink brand Virtue Drinks, as well as Allplants, This, Livia’s and plant-based dogfood start-up The Pack.

Heura, which was founded in 2017 in Barcelona by Marc Coloma and Bernat Añaños and launched in the UK with a meat-free burger late last year, plans to use the cash to invest in R&D to expand its product range from plant-based meatballs, burgers, chicken chunks and strips to nuggets, sausage and mince.

Planty

Plant-based frozen meals start-up Planty, meanwhile, also surged through its initial £200k crowdfunding target  – raising £355,000 from 350 investors in its first week.

The Veg Capital-backed business, which delivers chef-prepared, plant-based, frozen meals direct to consumers, said it would use the funds to expand the variety of its meals, develop new categories such as desserts and breakfasts, and move to a larger commercial kitchen to meet demand.

The DTC business, which launched in London in 2019 before expanding to the rest of the UK in 2020, delivered more than 9,300 meals in April, with monthly revenues hitting £43k.

Jersey Hemp

The crowd isn’t just hungry for plant-based, though. CBD brands have also been smashing their targets this year – including Jersey Hemp, which easily exceeded its £1.1m crowdfunding target on the Seedrs platform. 

The company, whose CBD products are produced using organic and sustainable farming methods, raised a total of £1.3m from 629 investors. CEO Dave Ryan said the funds would be “used for the expansion of our business through an exciting new phase now that Covid restrictions have been lifted and consumers are returning to the shops”.

Oto

Another CBD brand catching investors’ eyes is Oto, which beat its £2m crowdfunding target just 12 hours after the campaign launched on the Seedrs platform. 

By the end of October, the London-based company had raised £2.9m from 310 investors, valuing it at £18m.

Launched by husband and wife team Gemma Colao and James Bagley in 2019, Oto produces a range of luxury CBD products such as sleep drops, pillow mist, drinks (from cocktail bitters to botanical seltzers and shots), hand and lip balm, face and eye cream, body oils and other skincare SKUs. 

The business, whose products are sold by the likes of Harrods, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason, said it would use the money raised from the crowd to invest in its spa proposition, expand its international reach to the Spanish market and improve its sustainability credentials with new packaging, ingredients and supply chain initiatives. 

Hun 

Drinks brands cashed in on crowdfunding platforms in 2021, too. Take canned wine start-up Hun, which surpassed  its £400,000 crowdfunding target within 72 hours of launching a campaign on Seedrs. 

The business, which is backed by Waitrose CEO James Bailey, raised over £600,262 from 455 investors in the round earlier this year. It plans to use the money to increase distribution across the UK, expand overseas and develop a red wine and a non-alcoholic variant.

Since founder Mark Woollard launched the business less than a year ago, Hun has secured a national listing with Tesco and became the first canned wine to be invited into the Amazon Vendor programme.

Nix & Kix

Another drinks brand to bring in the big bucks in 2021 was Nix & Kix, which exceeded its £500,000 crowdfunding target at the same time as landing a distribution deal with Coca-Cola-backed Iris Nova to break into the US.

The London-based business hit its fundraising target in just one day on the Seedrs platform, raising a total of £825,760 from 373 investors. It said the money would be used to ramp up marketing, boost e-commerce sales and expand further into the convenience channel.

Its distribution deal, meanwhile, will see its five-strong range of canned drinks distributed in the US under Iris Nova’s DTC platform, which takes orders by text message from a base of more than 200,000 customers and also sells its own Dirty Lemon lemonade brand.

The Ethical Butcher 

Premium meat supplier The Ethical Butcher also surged past its crowdfunding target in just one day. Having set out to raise £400k on Crowdcube, the London-based wholesaler established by former Smithfield trader Farshad Kazemian raised more than £1.1m on its first day on the platform.

So far, it has raised £1.4m from 1,263 investors and is overfunding up to a maximum of £1.5m.

Proceeds will be used to scale up meat production and accelerate the growth of its DTC business, which was launched in February last year and is set to rake in sales of more than £1m in the current financial year (to April 2022).

Ember

Ethical meat snacks brand Ember, meanwhile, smashed its £800,000 crowdfunding target on Seedrs after promising to dial up its campaign to end factory farming.

The company, which was founded three years ago by brothers Harry and Jack Mayhew, raised £1.4m from 386 investors, including Asos CEO Nick Beighton.

It said it would plough the new funds into three new supermarket listings, adding to 2,000 distribution points across the UK with Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Ocado for its range of biltong and charcuterie. As well as marketing campaigns to highlight the practices of factory farming in the meat industry, Ember said it would seek changes in food labelling to ensure claims such as ‘grass fed’ are accurate.

“The [crowd] response has been incredible and brings us closer to achieving our mission to end factory farming and educate consumers about the importance of regenerative farming practices,” Harry Mayhew said.

Serious Pig

For more evidence premium meat brands are giving their plant-based rivals a run for their money when it comes to crowdfunding, see Serious Pig.

The business, founded by George Rice in 2009, soared past its £350,000 crowdfunding target on Crowdcube to raise £763,421 from 2,144 investors on the platform.

Rice said Serious Pig, which is stocked in Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Amazon, Booths, Fortnum & Mason and BrewDog’s bar estate, would use the cash to “turbocharge our growth plans and take an even bigger bite out of the UK’s £3.2bn savoury snack market”.

BrewDog CEO James Watt, who has been a shareholder and advisor at Serious Pig since 2015, was among the investors in the company’s latest funding round.