Square Pie launches £2m Crowdcube campaign to fund expansion

Gourmet fast-casual operator Square Pie is giving investors a chance to get a slice of the business with the launch of its first CrowdCube campaign.

The ‘Pie Bond’ is aiming to raise between £750,000 and £2m to fund the opening of an additional five restaurants in 2016, as well as expanding the brand’s supermarket and wholesale offering.

Sales at Square Pie are set to hit £5m in 2015, up 75 per cent on 2014. The company currently operates six sites across London and plans to grow to 30 within four years.

The bonds will pay eight per cent interest per annum and be repaid in four years’ time.

“Last year, 700,000 people enjoyed Square Pie food and, by issuing this Pie Bond, those fans can now get a slice of the pie for themselves by financing our growth and helping us take our fantastic food to more and more people across the country,” said Square Pie founder Martin Dewey.

“I believe that everyone loves a great pie and now everyone can get involved via Crowdcube, who are definitely the go-to guys when it comes to crowdsourcing finance.”

Square Pie opened it's largest site to date, a 100-cover restaurant at the O2 in London, in June with a seventh restaurant launching in Birmingham in September.

Founded by Dewey in 2001, the restaurants serve a range of freshly baked pies alongside 'classic British' sides such as sausage and mash.

It is the latest restaurant business to use the CrowdCube platform to fund expansion, with Grind & Co, Pizza Rossa and Dub Jam raising hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment through the site.