Snack box service EarlyBird secures £300,000 crowdfunding

EarlyBird, an early-stage subscription snack service, has hit its £300,000 target on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, taking total funding to £600,000.

The Shoreditch-based business raised £311,270 in exchange for 20.6% equity, with 190 investors participating in the round. The largest single sum was £64,500.

Launched in September 2014 by young founders Ollie Pugh and Jamie Trinder, EarlyBird is looking to take a chunk out of the £65m subscription snack box market with its TasteBox offering which contains healthy snacks, flavoured teas, art work and even free music downloads.

The company has secured 1,500 subscribers and claims to be currently shipping 1,000 boxes a week – each priced at £4.50.

EarlyBird will use the additional funding to increase its rate of customer acquisition and expects to deliver a minimum of 67,000 boxes over the next 12 months. It will also boost growth with the appointment of Lily Abrahmsohn, former drinks product developer at Innocent Drinks, to its snack development team.

Pugh commented: “Firstly I would like to publicly thank everybody that has invested in our current funding round, we genuinely couldn’t build this company without their support and secondly I would like to thank our brilliant team, without whom none of this would be possible!

“Raising capital is a tough game, with many ups and many downs but I firmly believe that if you continue driving forward and your raising money for something you believe in and something that can make the world a little more fun then you will get there in the end.”