A Cape Town craft brewing company raised more than ZAR1 million through crowdfunding just hours following the launch of its campaign.

After going live on crowdfunding site Uprise.Africa on March 27, Drifter – which produces beers such as Stranded Coconut and Cape Town Blonde – managed to raise ZAR1.013 million from nine investors, in exchange for equity, according to a report by Ventureburn. The company is trying to raise ZAR3 million in total and is accepting investments of ZAR1 000 and above.

Drifter was founded in 2015 and the finance from the crowdfunding campaign will be used to expand production to allow it to export to Europe, Asia and the US as well as launch its own bars across South Africa. Drifter founder Nicholas Bush says they had decided to raise capital through equity crowdfunding as ‘we like the idea of a community-focused company, rather than having one or two big venture capitalists’.

10 April 2018
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