Almost £7m has been raised by a soft drinks manufacturer whose products are sold by the likes of Lidl, M&S and Waitrose as it works towards an IPO.
Liverpool-based Happy Drinks Co, which also has a global partnership with the official Emoji brand, secured over £6.7m from nearly 900 investors during its latest Seedrs fundraising campaign.
The business had an initial target of £5m and had been valued at £48m ahead of the fundraise.
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The company was founded by 2017 by CEO Ian Minton and Steve Wilkinson and used to be called Skinny Drinks Group.
The funding boost comes after the business raised £1.8m in January 2020 with its first Seedrs campaign.
It also secured a further £1.75m through the Future Fund in October that year.
Happy Drinks Co relocated to its new 45,000 sq ft headquarters in July 2021 .
In an interview with The Times recently, Happy Drinks Co's founders confirmed that company is working towards going public in the next 18 months.
The business recently announced that the non-executive chairman of Games Workshop Group and a founder director of The Fulham Shore, Nick Donaldson, has joined its advisory board. He is also a co-founder of Capital Markets Strategy.
Former British professional tennis player Deborah Jevans has also joined the advisory board. She was previously the general secretary of the International Tennis Federation, director of sports at London 2012 and was CEO of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Paul Beavis, who was managing director of Lanson International for 20 years until he joined The Mark Anthony Group, invested in the round and also joined the advisory board.
In a statement on its Seedrs page, the company said: "We will continue to invest in the marketing mix of our brand house as we aim to push shareholder value.
"We will continue to pioneer NPD and develop exciting new flavours and packaging.
"We have invested in a new state of the art fully automated canning and bottling facility with an array of market leading filling and packaging machines.
"We will continue to invest in our team as we grow the business, and work to take the business from strength to strength."
