Hot on the heels of Conservative party plans to scrap free school lunches, Jake’s Boost, the health food startup, is fighting UK child hunger with nut butter. The company is celebrating the early success of its crowdfunding campaign by surpassing the initial target within the first 50 hours.
The rewards-based campaign hosted on social good crowdfunding platform UpEffect has exceeded its initial target of £10,000 with still a month to go. Jake’s Boost’s collection of multi-nut and seed butters dedicates 5 per cent of profits to UK child poverty charities, including Make Lunch.
The early success of the crowdfunding campaign points to consumer appetite to give back and support social good, while also feeling like they get something in return. According to UpEffect, the number of social good companies is growing and increasingly attempting to crowdfund. This rise has led to UpEffect tightening its vetting process to expand the due diligence applied to candidate businesses; UpEffect’s current acceptance rate stands at just 10 per cent.
The UK is the top 30 richest country in the world, yet 3.5 million children are living in poverty and 1.7 million live in severe poverty. The funds for the campaign will be used to grow the business and feed more children. The plan is to produce large test batches, develop more convenient and environmentally friendly packaging for the snack pots and invest in a marketing campaign. The mission is for Jake’s Boost to become a multi-social enterprise that offers socially conscious consumers a range of lifestyle products that support individual ethical causes.
Ansje Germann, Co-founder of Jake’s Boost, said: “The nascent success of our crowdfunding campaign just goes to show that there is zeal for brands and products that aim to do good and make you feel good. We’re only at the beginning of our journey but with this amazing support, we can build Jake’s Boost to feed more and more mouths in the UK. And with the state of schoolchildren’s meals hanging in the balance, this is the right moment to support brands and charities that are tackling this issue head on.”
Sheeza Shah, Founder and CEO of UpEffect, said: “This is the best time to be investing in social good startups. We know that £42 million was facilitated through rewards-based crowdfunding platforms in 2015, with a 62% year-on-year growth rate (£21m in 2014, £26m in 2014) according to the 2015 UK Alternative Finance Industry Report. If the power of crowdfunding is harnessed by getting the necessary dedicated support, it can give individuals in any part of the world the ability to start a social good business with access to capital, sales, and customers.”
Source: Jake’s Boost
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