Cranes Drinks is the fastest growing cider company in the UK, producing a range of innovative fruit ciders. By utilising the fruit’s natural sweetness, its drinks contain 30% fewer calories compared to that of brand leaders. Cranes ciders come in 3 flavours: blueberry & apple, cranberry & lime, and raspberry & pomegranate. As per Cranes, 34% of cider drinkers haven't consumed cider drinks much because it’s too sweet or has too much sugar. This makes Cranes a top contender in a growing fruit cider market worth £1.3 billion. The company's entire range is available on Ocado, and it has received 3 national listings in prominent retail chains like Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Morrisons. The brand has won 3 awards for its spirit range including a Gold Award in the Liqueur Masters organised by The Spirits Business and two awards from the International Wine & Spirits Competition. It has also received substantial media coverage in publications like Made In Chelsea, Dragons Dens, The Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Bella amongst others. With the investment, the company aims to use 25% of it as working capital, 60% in marketing, and 15% in managing key finances.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£246,046
Perspective Pictures is a creative, digital-first video production company based in North London. The company asserts that existing video production companies produce good TV advertisements and long-form pieces for brands but fail to find an engaged online audience. PP asserts that its team of employees with an average age of 25, and in-house production crew and creatives allow it to produce a variety of video ads from a short snappy, subtitled Facebook ad to a long-form 22 minute YouTube series drawing in the target audience. The company sold over £200,000 worth of video content in the first 60 days of 2020. It has featured in news publications like The Evening Standard, Forbes, BA BusinessLife, Moneyweek, and Shortlist. PP will use the investment to make £2 million worth of video content per year, invest in team training and education to ensure that it can offer the best service/product to its clients, and help manage cash flow and unexpected situations.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£108,046
Quin is a mobile medical app that combines daily life experience with data from diabetes devices and phones and helps people decide how much insulin to take and when. They are on a mission to help people with insulin-treated diabetes make the best possible decisions through their app. The company have received a UK research and innovation grant. Apple has granted them insider access to their engineers and executives who are helping to get Quin to market, their app has a class I CE Mark, with two patents pending. With the investment, they will hire a product designer to enhance the user experience, achieve certification and compliance with new European Medical Device Regulations, develope B2B2C distribution partnerships and launch the Quin app in the UK and Europe in late 2020.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£691,497
The Cookaway is a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) company that makes and sells recipe boxes to users to enable them to make delicious food from the comfort of their homes. Users receive all the ingredients, including premium oils, along with complete recipe cards made by the company's expert chefs. The Cookaway has garnered over 500 verified reviews on TrustPilot with an 'Excellent' rating and onboarded 10 chefs including 5 MasterChefs and a 2-Michelin starred chef. It has featured in publications such as The Independent, Forbes, The Week, and The Daily Mail. The company was the 'Chosen Food Partner' for The Lord Mayor's Big Curry Lunch 2021. The Cookaway will use 25% of the investment to hire talent, 20% to boost brand visibility via content generation, 15% to make its technology platform more intuitive, 15% to launch new chefs and cuisines, 5% to improve its sustainability credentials, 5% to develop its app with more features, 10% towards automation, and 5% to launch a membership program.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£792,187
Family Secret (FS) is a company that specialises in making sauces that are low on fat, sugar, calories and contain no added preservatives. The company's seven cooking sauces are listed with retailers including Ocado, Coop Midcounties, Amazon, as well as, hosted on QVC. The company's pouches are recyclable, and it is the process to make them compostable/biodegradable. It aims to be a disruptor in the $605 billion snacks market. FS won the 'Best Pitch' in the West Midlands 2019 via Pitchfest at Venturefest, were finalists for The Midlands region of the Family Business Entrepreneur 2019 via Great British Entrepreneur Awards, and appeared with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in a recipe video. The company will use the investment to expand its range of cooking sauces, produce more recipe videos to attract customers, expand sales by making its website more intuitive, and bring out snack boxes.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£147,070
Feed is a platform that automates digital advertising for musicians and creators by enabling them to grow an audience and build their businesses. The creator needs to connect their social media accounts to the Feed portal and set a budget. The portal will then create ads that reach new people and convert engaged audiences into loyal fans over time. The company asserts that existing ad generation platforms are too complex, time-consuming and expensive for creators. Feed argues that its portal caters to a variety of budgets, requires no marketing knowledge and takes minutes to get started. The beta platform is integrated with Facebook's & Instagram's ad network and has 500 creators on board. The company will use the investment to launch the paid version of Feed in Q4 2020.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£146,117
SL'M is the world's first zero sugar, zero carb, zero fat range of wines which is approved by both the TSO and FSA. During COVID-19, the company witnessed record earnings, amidst profitable online sales in March 2020. The company has also been featured in publications such as Cosmopolitan, The Sun, and many more. Slim Wine's audience comprises Gen X, Millennials, and Boomers, giving the company a great cross-generational position in the market. The company has served over 2 million glasses of wine and generated profits of over £1 million amidst a growing customer base. Slim Wine's latest vintage, Cuvée 450, was showcased at the 'Royal Berkshire Polo Club'. The company will use the investment to boost sales and marketing, advertising campaigns, and wine production.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£262,948
YurOn is a video platform that cultivates authentic interaction between prominent personalities and their fans. The portal allows people from different walks of life–drag queens, mountaineers, activists–thirty seconds to ignite a conversation, start an Ask Me Anything or co-create a skit. YurOn shuns away filters, anonymous commenting, vanity metrics or validation-driven algorithms and endeavours to bring to the public an unadulterated conversation between stars and their fans. The portal soft-launched in Q2 of 2020 and has seen over 5000 downloads, 2000 active users, and 32% of users retaining over a month. The company will use 80% of the investment to grow its tech team and cloud infrastructure, and 20% towards marketing and partnerships to accelerate growth.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£222,110
Carocell Bio is an early-stage Research and Design (R&D) company aiming to develop nanoparticle-based, novel peptide anti-inflammatories to treat atopic dermatitis/eczema (AD) and other serious inflammatory diseases. It argues that millions of people continue to be affected by debilitating skin ailments, which in turn, escalates the development of new pharmaceutical drugs. The company asserts that the anti-inflammatory therapeutics market will reach US$122.6 billion by 2025 from US$95.9 billion in 2019. The company aims to be a major contender in this market. Carocell Bio has also been awarded an Innovate UK grant of £390,874. The company is seeking £1 million in equity investment over the next 12 months to show that their compounds work in human tissue biopsies of several inflammatory diseases.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
Withheld
Planty delivers chef-prepared, plant-based, frozen meals straight to the doorstep of UK consumers. The company is on a mission to help people choose a smarter diet for the planet. It aims to become a contender in the plant-based food industry that is set to reach $74.2 billion by 2027. Planty further asserts that in the UK alone, 39% of people considered themselves as flexitarian in 2019. The company has sold over 30,000 meals in the first four months of 2021, reached £43,000 of monthly revenue in April 2021, was named the 'Best vegan delivery service in the UK' by Men's Fitness, and built up a 4.8/5 rating on Trustpilot. It has also featured in press entities like Forbes, BBC GoodFood and Cosmopolitan. Planty claims that it has seen a revenue increase of 800% from September 2020 to April 2021. It will use the investment to hire key talents, expand its meal options with innovative dishes, develop new products (desserts and breakfasts), and move to a larger commercial kitchen to sustain demand.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£538,195
