Tue 24th Mar 2015 - Flavourly smashes crowd-funding target after rejecting Dragons’ Den offer Flavourly smashes crowd-funding target after rejecting Dragons’ Den offer: Flavourly, the gourmet food, snacks and craft beer subscription club that turned down four investment offers from TV’s Dragons’ Den, has raised more than £300,000 through crowd-funding platform Crowdcube. On Saturday, the company hit its £300,000 target in exchange for a 23% stake in the business – 18 days ahead of the investment deadline. The figure is four times larger than the £75,000 offered by the Dragons (for a 20% stake) on the programme broadcast last month. By yesterday morning, the venture was overfunding, having raised £333,220 from 256 investors. The largest single investment has been £50,000. Flavourly is the brainchild of 26-year-old Scottish entrepreneur Ryan O’Rorke. Having seen his father, an amateur honey maker, struggle to sell products outside his local circle, O’Rorke found 75% of small British producers do not have the resources or infrastructure to sell direct to consumers or the multiples. Flavourly selects the high quality independently-produced gourmet food, snacks and craft beer and delivers them in a package to customers each month. Popular products include bacon jam, chilli popcorn and venison, mushroom and whisky pasta sauce. O’Rorke launched Flavourly in November 2012 from his grandmother’s garage in Edinburgh. Since then the company has grown 500% year on year, shipping more than 500,000 products from over 300 small British producers. Its craft beer club was launched in 2014 and received 4,000 orders on the first day. Flavourly has helped break many small producers into the mainstream and recently launched its online marketplace where customers can rebuy favourite items at the most affordable prices on the web. On Dragons’ Den last month, O’Rorke was seen pitching for £75,000 and received four separate investment offers, plus a job offer from Kelly Hoppen. Viewers saw O’Rorke accept a joint bid from Piers Linney and Peter Jones in exchange for a 20% stake of the business. However, following the show’s recording, O’Rorke and Flavourly chief executive Assean Sheikh decided to decline the Dragons’ offer and pursue other investment opportunities. Since Dragons’ Den aired, more than 50,000 people have visited Flavourly’s website leading to thousands of new subscribers as well as the crowd-fund investment. Ryan O’Rorke said: “We’re over the moon to have smashed our £300,000 target. And it hasn’t stopped there – the bids are still flying in. We’re thrilled that hundreds of public investors have embraced Flavourly with such enthusiasm. We’ve huge plans ahead and this investment will enable us to accelerate our mission to become the go-to destination of gourmet food, snacks and craft beer across Europe.”