Fat Cats Dropped Over Wall Street as Brew Dog Returns to USA Crowdfunding Round

Brew Dog, one of the most successful investment crowdfunding offerings of all time, has returned to the US for its second go at a Reg A+ securities offering. CI caught wind of the second round earlier this year due to a public filing posted on the Securities and Exchange Commission site. This offer follows a previous Reg A+ round in 2017 that raised over $7 million. The funding went to BrewDog USA (a different company than the UK business), to help pay for a new brewery based in Columbus, Ohio. This newest offering, which kicked off this week, is looking to raise $10 million from both accredited and non-accredited investors. In February, CI reviewed the two different offering circulars noting that the share price has ticked up since 2017.

To help kickoff Equity for Punks USA round 2, the BrewDog founders revisited a promotional tactic that helped drive attention to their UK Equity for Punks offering. Co-founders James Watt and Martin Dickie dropped “Fat Cats” from a helicopter hovering over Wall Street. And no, these were not live cats but stuffed versions that are meant to represent Fat Cat bankers and the brewery’s approach of skipping over more traditional funding methods to raise their needed growth capital. BrewDog says that “dozens of the guerrilla felines parachuted into the bustling city below.”

From its USA base of operations, BrewDog is now selling their beer in seven states including Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois. The brewery currently has three bars in Columbus (a big college town with Ohio State and more), with many more aiming to launch in the next 12 months. This new round of Equity for Punks USA will support BrewDog’s plans to add new bars in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Cleveland.

Watt, said crowdfunding is no longer alternative finance but the democratization of finance;

“Community has always been at the heart of Equity for Punks. Without our 80,000 maverick Equity Punks, we would never be where we are today. With the launch of Equity for Punks USA, we want to invite thousands more beer fans to join us on our collective mission to make other people as passionate about craft beer as we are.”

So what do you get if you purchase shares in BrewDog USA?

As an investor you receive equity at $50 per share. If all 800,000 shares are sold, BrewDog USA will have an approximate valuation of around $363 million. So if you are an investor, you expect the company to be worth a whole lot more than that in the future. Or maybe you are just in it for the discounts on beer.

Along with shares in the brewery, you also may receive a number of perks.

Every Equity for Punks USA investor will receive a 5% discount in any of the 50 BrewDog bars worldwide and a 10% discount for its US online store. If you want to go big and invest $50,000 or more, the brewery will ‘BrewDog your house’, creating a fully-functioning BrewDog bar in your home.

As of today, 424 applicants have committed $159,000 with 80 days in the campaign remaining.

In aggregate including both the US and European crowdfunding rounds, BrewDog has raised more than $77 million from over 80,000 people around the world. So they must be doing something right? Perhaps it is the great beer.