Startups Awards winner Beer52 secures “six figure” investment

Beer52, the start-up which took home the overall prize at the 2014 Startups Awards, has just secured an undisclosed six-figure investment from a group of high-profile names.

Skyscanner founder Gareth Williams; Secret Escapes founder Andrew Bredon, and Funkin Cocktails founder Alex Carlton were among those that backed the round.

Founded in 2013 by James Brown (pictured) and Fraser Doherty, Edinburgh-based Beer52 is a craft beer subscription service which provides subscribers with eight specially selected craft beers from around the world every month.

The service, which started life as part of the Entrepreneurial Spark accelerator, now has thousands of subscribers, has shipped over three million bottles of beer, and hit turnover of £2.6m last year  – with turnover set to triple this year. It also recently won the SIBA award for ‘best independent online beer retailer’.

Beer52 will use the funding to fuel a move into the craft spirits market, launch a new, faster delivery e-commerce model, and create a further five jobs at the company in areas such as marketing, design and development.

Brown commented: “To get backing from such a group of distinguished entrepreneurs is all we could wish for. It does far more than simply funding our ambitious expansion plans – it also provides an invaluable wealth of expertise to draw on and represents a huge vote of confidence in our business and its prospects.”

Jim Duffy, chief executive and founder of Entrepreneurial Spark, said:

“We are all raising a glass to Beer52 as this funding, from such an illustrious group of entrepreneurs, is an excellent result for Brown and his business.”

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