LCC kicks off £750,000 crowd-funding campaign

The London Cocktail Club has launched a £750,000 crowdfunding campaign called #RaiseTheBar in a bid to triple the size of the company over the next three years.

The duo hope the #RaiseTheBar campaign will enable LCC to triple in size over the next three years

Founded by JJ Goodman and James Hopkins after the duo won the BBC’s The Restaurant in 2009, LCC was first launched at a site in Covent Garden, and has since expanded to include five London-based bars.

If the fundraising is successful, LCC hopes to open three additional bars before the end of the year, with a view to building the chain to 19 bars by 2019.

The month-long campaign launched on crowd-funding platform Crowdcube yesterday (1 March), and at the time of writing has already raised £93,220 of its target.

Investors can part with sums ranging from £150, which includes a free cocktail and mug, to £100,000, which entitles the investor to host of rewards including designing a cocktail for inclusion on the menu, a 20% discount for life, and a free round of drinks at every venue on every visit.

To support the campaign, they duo have released a five-minute film which takes potential investors behind the scenes at its Goodge Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Oxford Circus, Shoreditch and Islington venues.

Goodman said: “It’s an incredible opportunity to make our family bigger and give our actual fans the chance to be a part of it. Our core values are all about serving everybody so we loved the idea that our customers can become our investors – what better way to grow our family than to allow everyone to get involved? It was a no brainer.”

Judges of The Restaurant, Michelin-starred restaurateur Raymond Blanc and Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Sarah Willingham continue to be investors of the group, and also sit on the company’s board of directors.

Both Blanc and Willingham will make appearances at private investor parties throughout the month at the Oxford Circus branch, where they will talk about the business and explain why they chose to be shareholders.

LCC has also created a campaign cocktail called Show Me The Money, which is now available in all venues at the price of two for £12.