Towards the end of 2023, we recognised that we needed to make some changes to Brewser to keep growing the business in a way that worked for everyone involved. Those changes include evolving our tech and our team, to make our marketing more effective and efficient. Making such changes costs money, as does the growing itself. We also recognised that we had built an incredible community of people, including both brewers and drinkers. So, we decided to offer up the opportunity for that community to invest in Brewser, and become an owner in a unique business within the world of beer.

In any case, crowdfunding is easy, right? Wrong. Anyone who’s run a crowdfund will tell you it’s by no means easy. Especially in today’s economic climate. First, there’s choosing the right platform to work with, and there are bunch of options that all have slightly different propositions. We chose Seedrs because their team and their investor community impressed us – we believed we’d be most successful with them. Just as we put a lot of trust in Seedrs, they also put a lot of trust in us. As a business, you must go to great lengths to prove that you’re legitimate and are going to be a wise investment for the platform’s investor community. It took a lot of time and effort, but it was equally a useful exercise for us as a team to reflect and analyse where we’re at as a business, and more importantly, where we’re going. Then there’s the material you need to create for communications, marketing a pre-registration campaign, gathering feedback, adjusting your communications, marketing the actual campaign, answering a whole variety of questions, having calls with prospective investors, and doing everything you can to keep the campaign on track to hit its target. It’s a lot, and it’s fun, but it’s not easy.

With our campaign now closed, and the legalities drawing to a close, we are proud to say that we secured a little over £190k of investment, from over 160 investors (well above the £150k target!). It makes all that effort and stress so worth it, and really validates that we’re building an epic and trustworthy business. What validates things further for us, is the incredible diversity of investors that are now a part of Brewser. It feels very special that many of our own customers, partners and people who have no previous association with us have seen and invested in the potential of what Brewser can be. Especially in the tough times we’re in now, we are humbled and grateful to everyone who’s put their own money into Brewser, regardless of the amount.

So, with the funding round now wrapping up we can start to execute on some of our plans. It will always remain critical to us that we grow Brewser in a way that works for our customers, the breweries we work with, and those invested in the business. So, we are beginning to run some tests on how we can expand into a broader market of people, and get more people enjoying beer from the producers we work with. This involves different methods of marketing, and different onboarding flows once people reach the site. We also want to bring more marketing expertise into the team, and we’re in early discussions with some folk we think would be a great fit. Finally, we want to make Brewser even more flexible for our customers and partners, and that primarly comes down to evolving our tech to make that happen.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but this crowdfund has given us the fuel and confidence we need to get it done. We would like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who’s shown us support prior to and during the crowdfund, and we’re looking forward to the onward journey together!