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Craft Gin Club founders, Jon Hulme (left) and John Burke (right) with Dragon’s Den investor Sarah Willingham.

There is much excitement here at Craft Gin Club HQ about the launch of our Seedrs crowdfunding campaign, which is now open to priority investors.

It’s a real opportunity for our fellow gin lovers to invest in the future of the UK’s #1 gin club. After all, it’s that very community of avid gin fans from across the UK that has been at the heart of everything we do here at the club and the driving force behind our success. 

Perhaps most famously, Sarah Willingham, who invested in Craft Gin Club on Dragon’s Den in 2016, was already a member of the club when our founders appeared on the show! Sarah has remained an active member of the board ever since.

Now, with the launch of this new Seedrs campaign, we are giving even more gin lovers the opportunity to invest in Craft Gin Club.

But what exactly is Seedrs? What does “crowdfunding” actually mean? And, most importantly, how can you use Seedrs to invest in Craft Gin Club?

Here, we are going to take you through everything you need to know about crowdfunding and what makes Seedrs such a fantastic platform for Craft Gin Club and you, as a potential investor. 

What is crowdfunding and how does crowdfunding work?

Crowdfunding is a way for a business to raise money to finance its growth. A community, or “crowd”,  of customers, family, friends, and investors come together to raise funds to support the business, with each individual contributing relatively small, manageable amounts.

Online platforms such as Seedrs allow a group of investors to invest funds in a business in exchange for shares, or “equity” in that business. Instead of just one or a small number of investors, there may be hundreds or even thousands.

Using a crowdfunding platform like Seedrs to facilitate the transaction in a safe manner, a company puts out an open invitation for individuals to invest. The company will set an investment price per share, a target for how much it wants to raise and a time frame in which any investments can be made. Individuals are free to invest as much or as little as they please within those parameters.

Craft Gin Club’s crowdfunding campaign on the Seedrs platform is equity-based, which means you have the opportunity to own part of the club and potentially see an uplift in the value of your investment as we look to grow.

Why is Craft Gin Club crowdfunding?

We’ve got some exciting plans in store for the next stage of our business growth – and as with our success in our previous Gin Bond campaigns, we want our loyal community to be a part of this next chapter. 

We’ve made our name with our five-star Gin of the Month boxes, and we want to invest in the infrastructure and talent to fully capitalise on the success of our core business for the benefit of our gin-loving supporters.

We’re also so excited to build on early successes beyond both gin and subscriptions – from bringing our magic formula to new spirits categories to conquering retail shelves with our own-brand products.

Pre-register via our Seedrs page today and you’ll be the first to find out more when the campaign goes live.

What is Seedrs and what does it do?

Seedrs is a crowdfunding platform that helps people easily find and invest in a range of different businesses that are typically in the early stages.

Allowing individuals to invest as much or as little as they like, it’s a great place for businesses to raise funds from a range of different people, from experienced investors to family, friends - and for us our gin-pals.

To help you decide if investing in a certain company is the right thing for you, Seedrs allows each business to create a profile, or “pitch page” so that you can get all of the information you need to make an educated decision.

Seedrs performs thorough due diligence on all the businesses that raise via its platform and the information included on their pitch pages, using a combination of public registers, third-party sources and the information requested directly from the company. 

Image: Seedrs.

Can you make money investing in Seedrs?

As Seedrs allows for equity-based crowdfunding, there is potential for your shares to grow in value by being an investor on Seedrs. This can happen in three ways:

Acquisition

The business you’ve invested in could be acquired by a larger organisation, offering what is known as an “exit opportunity” for shareholders. 

The acquiring company will propose a deal for the acquisition, usually involving a lump sum for shareholders. This will often be in cash but can also be in new stock.

The offer can be much higher than shareholders originally paid for their shares, thus making them a profit.

Initial Public Offering (IPO)

When a company puts its shares up for sale to the general public on a stock market for the first time, this is called an Initial Public Offering.

If this happens, this provides existing shareholders with the opportunity to sell their shares on this stock market, often at a higher price than they paid for them.

Secondary markets

Seedrs was the first crowdfunding platform to introduce a “secondary market”, meaning that investors on the platform can buy and sell shares from each other.

This liquid secondary market means investors don’t have to wait for or rely on the company being listed on the stock market or being acquired to liquidate their shares. 

Is Seedrs free to use?

Seedrs is free to join. Once you have signed up and become authorised to invest, you can enter your free Seedrs account at any time through your Seedrs login

Who can invest using Seedrs?

Anyone can invest on Seedrs, as long as they become authorised to invest when they sign up.

How is this campaign different from the Gin Bonds?

The Gin Bond and Gin Bond 2 are both what is known as ‘mini-bonds’, offering the chance to invest in our business over a fixed period in return for interest, paid in cash or in gin. Crowdfunding offers the opportunity to actually own shares in our business.

If I’m a Gin Bond holder, can I still invest in the crowdfund?

Yes, absolutely! The Gin Bond, Gin Bond 2 and our Seedrs crowdfund are all completely separate investment opportunities and there is nothing to stop you from investing in more than one of them.

How do I invest in Craft Gin Club using Seedrs?

Our campaign is now open to priority investors! We have a limited amount of equity available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you want to get involved before we invite the public to join, visit our campaign page now.

Once you’ve signed up to the platform and completed the neccesary ID checks (which all takes a few minutes) you simply enter the amount you would like to invest, confirm your investment and complete payment.

You then become a shareholder when Craft Gin Club’s campaign finishes and “due diligence” is completed. Through Seedrs, you can easily follow the performance of your investment through your personal Seedrs portfolio, and we will be giving quarterly updates via the Seedrs platform to all our investors.

This is your opportunity to invest in the future of Craft Gin Club - we can’t wait to welcome you on board!

Craft Gin Club’s Executive Team: Chief Brand & Community Officer Katy Menczer (left), Chief Growth Officer Ted Charalambides (mid-left), Chief Finance Officer Sarah Hodgson (mid-right) and Chief Operations Officer Tom Connell (right).