Pact Coffee Confirms 16 Layoffs Following Crowdcube Cancellation

Following the announcement that it has canceled its equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, Pact Coffee has confirmed it has made 16 redundancies.

Pact Coffee, which was founded in 2012 by Stephen Rapoport, revealed that it is on a mission to change the coffee industry for the better by delivering great-tasting, freshly roasted coffee by post. It launched the initiative last month in an effort to raise funds for expand to other markets. Before Crowdcube, the company had reportedly been backed by some of European’s leading venture capitalists and has been recognized as an innovative fast-growing company.

The campaign kept its steady but slower funding progress and only achieved £178,6709 from 871 investors before pulling the plug. A Pact Coffee spokesman shared with Business Insider the bad news about the campaign and explained:

“There was a good steady trickle but there was no way we were going to get to the million. There were lots of small amounts going in but the more sophisticated investors that make these crowdfunding campaigns successful weren’t going through.”

Commenting on the campaign’s closing, Rapoport stated:

“Whilst the business is in great shape today, our customers and the crowdfunding community couldn’t support our future plans and finance strategy in enough numbers to close the round. So we’re doing the smart thing; taking their feedback on board and reviewing our plans before coming back to the table. I’m proud of the business we’ve built and our plans for the future, but not so proud that I’m against revisiting the plans as we learn and grow!”

This week, Rapoport admitted that Pact Coffee did make the layoffs:

“It’s true that we made 16 redundancies yesterday from the team of 74. It was an incredibly hard decision as my team are like family but ultimately the right thing for the business and I had full board support.”

He then noted:

“These redundancies are unrelated to our decision to delay fundraising, and will not affect the quality of our coffee, customer service or our rate of growth.”