Case study: ETHOSA reaches 154% via Seedrs

"Working with ISQ was a game-changer for our crowdfunding campaign. Their expertise and support were incredibly helpful in orchestrating and executing our crowdfunding campaign. From the initial planning stages to the final launch, they were always responsive, providing valuable insights and guidance every step of the way. The program they built was exceptionally well-structured, making the entire process smooth and efficient. Thanks to ISQ, our campaign exceeded expectations and achieved great success. I highly recommend their services to anyone embarking on a crowdfunding journey." - Gaëlle Chatelard, Founder, ETHOSA

Client: ETHOSA

Platform: Seedrs

Campaign target: £150K

Final amount raised: £237,500

Overfunding %: 154%

Number of investors: 192

Pre-money valuation: £2.3M

Final equity transferred: 9.27%

Tax relief: SEIS

Business summary:

Multi-award winning, waterless personal care products, with proven skincare benefits & planet friendly.

Bullet highlights:

• 4.7 star rating + over 70% returning customer rate
• Tapping into a £40b market opportunity
• Listings with Canopey, Amazon, Etsy, Econess
• Featured in national press & family office backed

ISQ started working with ETHOSA in early 2024 with a view to launching a campaign in March. Steph from ISQ supported Gaëlle from ETHOSA, reviewing key collateral, offering bespoke tips and guidance via weekly calls, and keeping the project on track.

Steph caught up with Gaëlle post campaign to look back on lessons learnt.

What was the best bit/what went well?

Gaëlle said the best bit of running the campaign was: “Working together with ISQ to prepare the campaign”, she said she was always happy with the speed of responses from us here at ISQ, as well as the feedback and tips we were able to provide. Gaëlle also enjoyed shooting the video with Pangaea Productions and putting it together, “it was a lot of work but I enjoyed it”.

Did you enjoy any additional benefits of Crowdfunding? On top of funds raised

Exposure

“This is one of the main reasons I considered it, to use it as a marketing campaign, gain awareness and have a success story to build credibility and trust around the business.”

It’s a definitely tough market out there at the moment and you need to have a certain amount of capital pre-committed in order to launch a campaign on a crowdfunding platform like Seedrs, but it becomes a little bit easier to get other investors on board once you have some investment confirmed because of the snowball effect. They see the traction and it creates a good momentum to engage other investors.

Advisors

Thanks to contacts made throughout the campaign, Gaëlle has been able to add an NED to the team. This is somebody super prominent in the sustainability space in the UK that she met a few years ago at an accelerator, but thanks to running a public crowdfunding campaign, this individual got in touch and is now interested to come on board to help ETHOSA grow and scale. #winwin

What parts of the programme did you really benefit from?

“Everything! It was super useful, including how to build an email comms and marketing plan, how to structure the campaign video etc. Every step has been really useful.”

Top Tips to share with new crowdfunders?

Here are a few Top Tips from Gaëlle to share with other considering crowdfunding:

• “Work with ISQ!

• They have a really thorough programme which takes you through every single step in a thoughtful way with lots of resources. Plus having Steph & Richard on demand to ask questions and get feedback is a bonus.

• If you want to do things properly, you need to follow steps in a certain order and tick all the boxes. It’s easy not to see the whole picture or not know where to start.”

• Take a platform that is EU friendly if you want to raise from an EU network.

• Be a bit diplomatic, take time to evaluate pros and cons of platforms and pick the best one for your company's needs.

• Monitor other campaigns and research investors who are engaging with live campaigns across crowdfunding platforms, it’s a great source of leads.”

Would you use crowdfunding as a way of raising funds again? 

“Yes! Despite all the challenges, it’s great for exposure and marketing.”  As the ETHOSA community grows even more, Gaëlle might consider it again, for example at the time of another product launch.

What is next for your team and growth plans?

The ETHOSA team will now focus on growing the D2C business, investing strategically in marketing and also working closely with the new NED on growth strategies, which may involve retail. Once in a stronger position, ETHOSA will then develop a new range of products too.

We can’t wait to see ETHOSA on the shelves in our local shops soon!

Written by Steph Yeates, Operations Director, ISQ