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Invivo half way to NZ$2m crowdfunding target after only one day of trading

Published:  20 March, 2015

New Zealand winery, Invivo Wines, raised over half its NZ$2 million target in a matter of hours after its crowdfunding campaign was opened for business yesterday.

Tim Lightbourne helping to promote Invivo's crowdfunding initiativeTim Lightbourne helping to promote Invivo's crowdfunding initiative

Investors were only able to buy in to the company when the campaign went live at midday local time yesterday, but by 5.30pm it had already raised over NZ$1m - the fastest in New Zealand history, according to Tim Lightbourne, one of Invivo's founders.

The money raised is going to help the award-winning winery, which has BBC chat show host Graham Norton as one of its investors, grow its export and international business.

It will put 20% of the business in the hands of those who take part in the scheme.

Lightbourne told Harpers.co.uk: "A lot of hard work has gone into it! We're proud we've had already 302 investors come on board in two days!"

Lightbourne and co-founder Rob Cameron only started the winery in 2008 and it has been using its customer base to drum up support for the crowdfunding initiative. It is also working with Miro Capital Advisory to attract finance investors in to the winery and is running the crowdfunding initiative through the Snowball Effect platform.

Lightbourne said it had to cap the crowdfunding campaign at NZ$2m as that is the maximum that can be "raised under the country's equity crowdfund laws in a 12 month period".

He added: "No company has made the NZ$2m mark yet in New Zealand. NZ$1.5m was the country's previous largest."

Equity crowdfunding only launched in New Zealand in August 2014.

Invivo has seen its business grow by 200% in revenue since 2011 and has a forecast net income of NZ$152,000 from sales of NZ$5.1 million in the 12 months to March 31 2015. It is on course to hit revenues of NZ$25 million by 2020.

The offer closes on April 13 and will value Invivo at $10 million if the full $2 million is raised.

Lightbourne said of the initiative: "We have been impressed with Snowball's professional approach and we believe Invivo is an exciting opportunity for crowdfunding. We've shown the Invivo model is scalable, it's not a traditional wine model and there's a unique story behind the brand."

The offer is open to some international investors and if interested check the Snowball website to see which countries are eligible.

You can take part here: www.snowballeffect.co.nz/offers

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