Utrecht-based beer brewing startup Minibrew has raised an additional 2.45 million euro in seed investment. The round is led by one of the two investor’s that wish to remain undisclosed. Hoving & Partners SA and existing investor VOC Capital Partner also participated in this round. Previously, the startup secured 1,4 million in euro in funding from its founders and investors and 310.000 form an indiegogo campaign.
Minibrew aims use the new capital infusion to accelerated the expansion of the company in the USA, South America and Asian markets and for further product development. It has 431 customers from 33 countries, among them also known international and national breweries such as Dois Corvos (Portugal), Victory Art Brew (Russia), de Prael, de Leckere and Jopen (The Netherlands).
“The second biggest group of people that use the Minibrew is from the USA, so we will first focus on expanding into the USA. But we are also seeing promising traction in Japan, Australia and Brazil. We will expand gradually into these markets as well”, says Bart van de Kooij, co-founder of Minibrew.
Rapid Prototyping Beer
MiniBrew was founded in September 2015 by Olivier van Oord and De Kooij. Tapping into the ‘brew it yourself’ revolution the founders have built a modern home brewing machine. Van de Kooij: “The problem with the beer industry is that the big beer brands decide what people drink. This is what we wanted to change. By building the Minibrew platform we had enabled people to share and discover beer recipes from around the world and brew it with your Minibrew.”
MiniBrew disrupts the whole value chain by skipping the distributor or the store and bringing fresh craft beer to homes around the globe ”, says Pieter Schoen, investment partner of VOC Capital Partner. Adding: “Last year the team of MiniBrew has achieved strong growth around the globe. Now is an ideal time for VOC Capital Partners to accelerate scaling.
The startup does this by enabling beer lovers to choose ingredients of their liking via the Minibrew app, order it, brew their own beer, follow and get notifications about the fermentation process and finally drink the beer. If you’re in for a beer from Tokyo for instance, you can request a recipe from the brewer himself.
Minibrew is right now experimenting different pricing models. Charging a price for the recipe – and getting a kickback fee from the brewer – or the ingredients that brewers order are all possibilities it’s considering.
Interestingly the Minibrew is not only for the hobbyist says Van de Kooij. “An interesting and quite open customer segment is people that have never brewed before and would not brew in the old fashion time consuming home brewing way. Another promising customer segment is professional brewers that are using Minibrew for rapid prototyping new beer recipes.”
Photo Credit: Yutacar