Canned wine startup Nice has raised almost £1m from the crowd to boost the on-trade channel and invest in NPD.
The business beat its £750k target within 24 hours of the campaign going public. It has so far raised in excess of £920k from more than 200 investors on the Seedrs platform, valuing the brand at £17.8m.
Launched in 2019 by Lucy Busk and Jeremy May, Nice has expanded its initial canned offering into bag-in-box and also wine on tap.
Nice’s range is stocked nationwide by Sainsbury’s, alongside listings with Ocado and in travel retail with WH Smith, Whistlestop and Urban Express, as well as on trains and Virgin Atlantic flights.
It is also available with on-trade wholesalers, at sports stadiums and festivals, and at restaurant chains such as Wagamama, Itsu and Clean Kitchen.
Nice plans to use the crowd cash to considerably boost its wine-on-tap offering from 25 venues across the UK. It will also invest in further product innovation and new packaging formats, new senior hires and international expansion.
Co-founder Jeremy May told The Grocer that canned wine’s popularity in supermarkets was continuing to grow rapidly.
“Total miniature wine is worth £160m in the off-trade, cans currently make up 8.8% of this,” he said. “This means one in 10 single-serve wines are now served in a can – that is up from one in 20 less than two years ago.
“We know consumers’ habits are shifting and they are looking for more environmentally and convenient ways to wine, so, while there’s been good growth in the canned wine category, there’s still a huge amount of room for growth and a lot to go after.”
In 2022, Nice generated turnover of £3.9m, an increase of 144% year on year.
Angel backers of the business include Proper co-founders Cassandra Stavrou and Ryan Kohn, Camden Town Brewery founder Jasper Cuppaidge and former Winterbotham Darby CEO Steven Higginson.
May and fellow co-founder Lucy Busk both have extensive experience in the fmcg industry, spending time with Proper and Vita Coco, while Busk also founded bircher muesli brand Cuckoo in 2013.
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