Mr Lee’s smashes £1.75m crowdfunding target

04-May-2020 - Last updated on 05-May-2020 at 07:07 GMT

Mr Lee's Pure Foods has smashed its crowdfunding target in less than a week

Gluten-free noodle manufacturer Mr Lee’s Pure Foods has smashed its £1.75m crowdfunding target in less than a week, as it sets its sights on further international expansion.

The noodle brand has attracted 220 investors from across its customer base in just five days since the launch of the campaign on online crowdfunding platform Seedrs on 28 April, 2020. To date Mr Lee’s has secured £6.5m of investment across four rounds of crowdfunding through the platform.

This latest funding will be used to drive Mr Lee’s international growth, following a successful US launch this month. It followed the launch of its products in Australian supermarket chain Woolworths in 2018, as well as exports to Hong Kong and Scandinavia.

Expanding online presence

Additional resources will also be spent on further developing its e-commerce offering, as well as its full-service hot noodle kiosk vending machines, and to launch a new instant Congee rice porridge.

Significant investors in the latest crowdfunding drive included Monde Nissin chief executive Henry Soesanto, former Unilever head of innovation Bart Sayle, former Crushh Fitfood chief executive Chris Fung and Hay Will Wealth Management chief executive Nathalie Morrison.

Damien Lee, founder and chief executive of Mr Lee’s Pure Foods, said: “We are delighted by the huge support we’ve experienced so far in this funding round.

“It demonstrates that, now more than ever, there is a clear demand for convenient, healthy and delicious noodles. We look forward to welcoming our new investors on our journey into our next exciting phase of growth.”

Surge in demand

Mr Lee’s has experienced a surge in demand since the outbreak of COVID-19, with a 918% increase in e-commerce revenue and a 924% increase in new users to its website – from 20 March to 20 April 2020 compared to 17 February to 19 March 2020.

Crowdfunding has been a source of investment for many smaller food and drink manufacturers in recent years across a variety of different platforms, including Seedrs and Crowdcube.

Alcoholic drinks firm BrewDog has built a successful business through crowdfunding campaigns, raising more than £26m in one investment round in 2018.

Meanwhile, in December last year, Devon-based distillery Salcombe Gin smashed its £800,000 crowdfunding target in less than 24 hours.