Crowd-sourced funding (CSF) is a relatively high-risk way of investing for investors.
But it also gives investors the opportunity to buy shares in smaller businesses and niche market segments, like honey.
Two good examples in recent years are Australian Honey Ventures and APIA Honey.
Both are Western Australian start-ups and both have successfully raised capital via the crowd-funding platform operated by Birchal Financial Services Pty Ltd.
Australian Honey Ventures was founded by Jay Curtin in 2019 with part-owners including former reality tv star - Nick the Honey Badger Cummins (pictured at right)
Her company is a packer and marketer of local honeys and has raised some $3.8million to date in four separate campaigns. (An initial $750,000 in June 2021, and then $2million more in March 2022, and a further $670,000 in March last year.)
AHV’s latest successful crowed-funded campaign, in April this year has seen some 210 investors tip in another $350,000.
Even so, the cash-flow statement issued with the latest campaign offer document seems to suggest that all bar $125,000 of the capital previously raised has been spent.
And although sales have jumped to $350,000, and are growing strongly, cash burn is still an issue.
So to save money, AHV is closing its honey-packing warehouse in Perth and re-locating to the honey plant at Gingin owned by AHV chairman, Stephen Fewster.
Another WA honey business also succeeding in raising significant sums via Birchal recently is APIA honey.
Founded in 2020 by WA native, Lloyd Jones the company successfully raised some $600,000 in August last year.
He had found Jarrah honey was helpful with his daughters eczema, where nothing else had been. That grew into his ‘health and wellness collective” venture, and successful development of a range of skin-care products incorporating WA Jarrah and Marri honeys as the active ingredient.
APIA, like AHV, has successfully secured registration of WA honey varieties with Australia’s Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) and hopes to earn a share of both local and international markets for consumer-oriented therapeutic skin ointments and treatments.
For more information go to
www.australianhoneyventures.com.au