Happy Drinks Co smashes crowdfunding target with £6 million raised

Skinny Tonic owner Happy Drinks Co has beaten its £5 million crowdfunding target with more than £6 million raised from 686 backers on the Seedrs platform.

The company was launched by founders Steve Wilkinson and Ian Minton in 2019.

Having been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was aged 23, Minton was inspired to launched a sugar-free tonic to make it safe for diabetics to drink mixers, having discovered that several premium slimline tonics still contained too much sugar.

The business is now valued at £48 million. The money raised by the crowdfunding campaign will go towards marketing for the company’s various brands, creating new flavours and packaging and funding a new fully automated canning and bottling facility capable of filling more than 50,000 units an hour.

Skinny Tonic remains the company’s flagship brand, which Wilkinson claims is the first no sugar no calorie tonic water.

As reported by The Grocer, Wilkinson said of the campaign: “The investors at Seedrs are creating an army of brand ambassadors and I’m delighted to know we have the trust and support of so many people who are all genuinely excited by what we are doing.”

The business is based in Liverpool. With 10 days left of the campaign, £6,055,844 has been raised from 686 investors via the Seedrs platform.

Happy Drinks Co is currently pursuing an initial public offering (IPO). “We’re not looking for an exit route. An IPO would enable us to pursue a game-changing revolution in the soft drinks market,” Wilkinson said, according to The Times.

Investors include WH Ireland, Harwood Capital, GPIM and the British Business Bank Future Fund. Wilkinson has 11 per cent and Minton 18 per cent.

Happy Drinks Co is sold by the supermarket chain Booths, Lidl, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. It will be on the shelves of Asda and Iceland in September.