Chilango to raise £1m with ‘Burrito Bond'
Mexican fast casual restaurant group Chilango hopes to raise £1m by launching a "Burrito Bond", as it plans three more restaurant openings this year.
The bond, administered by online finance service Crowdcude, will see investors offered an 8% per annum return over four years.
It will enable Chilango to access finance from a crowd of 73,000 registered investors as well as their own customer base and the general public.
In addition to the 8% per annum return, bondholders will receive other benefits including two free burrito vouchers to all those that invest, a VIP bondholder party to the first 100 to purchase a Burrito Bond, and those that invest £10,000 or more will be entitled to free food for the duration of the bond.
Chilango's co-founder, Eric Partaker said: "Our Burrito Bond is the perfect way for us to engage with our loyal following as well as Crowdcube's investor base and accelerate our expansion plans with additional growth capital. As big fans of Mexican food we love everything that is vibrant, fresh and fun and Crowdcube is all of these. Its mini-bond platform is a breath of fresh air among the complexity and expense of existing solutions."
Luke Lang, co-founder of Crowdcube, said: "For customers and investors, the opportunity to invest in companies they already know, and want to support, as well as receive a regular financial return on their investment is appealing."
It is not the first time a company in the leisure and hospitality sector has attempted to raise money in this way. Brewer and bar operator BrewDog adopted a similar scheme last year called Equity for Punks, setting a target to raise £4m. It raised £3m within the first two months of the scheme alone - less than a third of the amount of time it expected.
BrewDog made 42,000 shares available to anyone to buy online at £95 each, ignoring traditional methods of funding to finance its expansion.
Under that scheme, investors received equity in the business, as well as a lifetime 5% discount in BrewDog bars and a discount of up to 20% in BrewDog's online shop.
Former Skype executives Eric Partaker and Dan Houghton launched Chilango in 2007, with their first restaurant in Islington, London. The business now has seven sites, all in London.
