Nix & Kix

Nix & Kix has raised a combined £1.9m from more than 500 crowd investors over the past three years

Nix & Kix is looking for a buyer to inject fresh capital into the soft drinks challenger just months after raising additional cash from the crowd.

The brand has approached a number of parties with an investment deck in an effort to open a dialogue around a potential sale, The Grocer has learned.

It is not clear what progress Nix & Kix has made with the process, which has been running for a number of months.

Launched officially in 2016 by co-founders Julia Kessler and Kerstin Robinson, Nix & Kix is stocked at more than 3,000 distribution points in the likes of Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado, Co-op, Whole Foods Market and Spar.

The brand, which adds a pinch of cayenne to its drinks, supplies a seven-strong range following extensions into sparkling fruit drinks with added vitamin, selling more than 10 million cans to date, generating total revenues of more than £6m.

Nix & Kix raised just more than £300k from 228 investors on Seedrs at the end of 2023. It marked the third time the business pitched to the crowd, with a combined £1.9m raised from more than 500 investors over the past three years.

The current indicative valuation of the business by Seedrs (now known as Republic Europe) – based on the share price of the company – stands at £5.6m, which is down 42.1% since being first recorded by the crowdfunding platform.

The company also has significant borrowings to service, including outstanding loans of close to £200k and loan and finance facilities totalling more than £1m, of which more than £500k was drawn down at the date of the most recent crowd round.

Nix & Kix declined to give a comment on the situation.