Investors Rush In To Be Part Of Craft Beverage Accelerator Craft beverage accelerator Founders First has completed its series B capital raising, its second for 2019, with the offer oversubscribed.
The company was overwhelmed by interest from sophisticated investors both in Australia and overseas.
Initially seeking to raise $10 million, the series B offer closed with the board accepting $13 million of subscriptions, taking total capital raised in 2019 to more than $21 million.
This oversubscribed capital raising follows the earlier series A round, where the board accepted $8.5 million in subscriptions despite initially seeking to raise $5 million.
Capital raised in advance of the IPO will be used to build a team of industry professionals with deep experience in the Australian market, fuel the short- term growth of existing partners Jetty Road (Mornington Peninsula) and Foghorn (Newcastle), close out a number of new investments in craft beverage businesses and progress discussions on brewpub opportunities.
Founders First CEO, Mark Haysman, said the second capital raising’s overwhelming success built strong momentum as the company heads towards a prospective IPO. “As a business we are focussed on the compelling offer we hope to take to market in the near future,” Mark said.
“The capital raised during 2019 has enabled us to identify a number of independent craft beverage businesses that will benefit from partnering with us and our investment will accelerate their growth.”
“We expect to make a number of announcements in coming months about strong independent local businesses run by passionate people, who have welcomed our investment to help them scale and grow.”
Mark said the reaction from overseas investors was particularly pleasing, with investment coming from investors in Hong Kong and London.
“Local investor support has again been excellent, and the overseas investment is a strong endorsement of our model in accelerating the growth of independent craft, and the potential scalability into markets beyond Australia in time,” he said.
Founders First engaged Bell Potter Securities Limited to manage the series B capital raising and to assist the company to prepare for its anticipated IPO.
