Less than a month after launching its equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, German coffee start-up Bonaverde has surpassed £1 million. The company originally sought to raise £750,000 and quickly secured the initial funding target. Speaking about the Seedrs success, Bonaverde founder and CEO Hans Stier, stated:
“We’re certainly celebrating here. Crowdfunding has always been a part of our DNA as a company. It’s inspiring not only to meet our goal but also to see that the grassroots, crowd-powered ethos of the Coffee Changer movement is still alive and well. The hardware was always just the beginning. When we launched our first crowdfunding campaign in 2013, it was with an aim to change the way coffee is perceived, traded and enjoyed. We’re still fully committed to this vision of fairer, farmer-centric coffee trade.””
As previously reported, Bonaverde raised $681,461 from 2,254 backers on Kickstarter and almost $125,000 on Indiegogo for its roast-grind-brew coffee machine. It also raised 1.3 million euros through SeedMatch. Although it was a success, the company was met with criticism from backers when it decided to change the design post crowdfunding campaigns. This left the project to become delayed. Following the design update, one of the backers decided to compiled list of backers who had expressed their displeasure with the project. More than 300 names made their way on the list. Nearly four years after securing the funding, Bonaverde revealed the coffee machines have finally shipped. But some backers have already moved on and wished for their contributions to be refunded.
Despite the struggles with reward-based crowdfunding, Bonaverde received close to €2 million in Series-A funding from investors including, Dr. Jens Odewald former CEO of Kaufhof/Metro Group and former board chair of Tchibo Holding until he joined Bonaverde’s board, and Mr. Michael Brehm a serial entrepreneur who has sold companies to Google and eBay. Seedrs participants invested at the same €27 million pre-money valuation these early investors received. The company noted that Seedrs investors also had the option to guide the company’s growth by securing a digital advisory board seat with an investment of £50,000 or more. Four of the thirty available seats have already been claimed.
Funding from the Seedrs campaign will be going towards the company’s larger mission, building a connected direct-trade coffee ecosystem. The company’s trade infrastructure includes farm-level packaging lines, an online marketplace, and a licensing-based distribution network.
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