Flavourly clinches £515,000 from the crowd to expand food and craft beer subscription service

Startups 100-listed Flavourly, a luxury food and craft beer subscription club specialising in products such as bacon jam and chilli popcorn, has raised £515,000 on equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

The subscription business’ original target was £300,000 but interest from 339 investors saw the company achieve 65% over its initial target in return for a share of 34% equity.

The round marks the company’s second successful crowdfunding attempt to date, after it previously raised £116,000 in less than 24 hours on Angels Den, and represents a new milestone for Scottish enterprise – Crowdcube claims Flavourly is the first ever Scottish company to raise over £500,000 in crowdfunding.

Launched in November 2012 by 26 year-old Ryan O’Rorke, Edinburgh-based Flavourly delivers independently-produced gourmet food, snacks and craft beer in a package to customers each month and has shipped more than 500,000 products to date with 500% year-on-year growth.

In the latest series of Dragons’ Den, Flavourly accepted a joint bid from Piers Linney and Peter Jones for £75,000 in return for a 20% stake but after the show aired  O’Rorke decided to reject the offer – a move which looks to have paid off. This latest investment is six times larger than the offer presented in the Den.

With turnover for 2015 set to hit £1m, the company plans to use the funding to expand its customer base and also has overseas expansion on the cards.

Flavourly’s O’Rorke said of the funding: “We’ve always believed in the strength our product but to have exceeded our target in such a dramatic way is truly amazing. We warmly welcome all our new investors and have huge and exciting growth plans to make Flavourly the go-to destination for gourmet food, snacks and craft beer across Europe.”