The Barcelona-based takeaway coffee startup GoodNews is launching a new financing model. After closing an 11 million euro round a year ago, this Monday it is launching a crowdfunding campaign through the Crowdcube platform with the aim of involving its community in the growth and expansion of the company. The priority, this time, is not so much to fill the coffers ---in October they expect to break even---, but to implement an innovative loyalty tool and create a community of brand lovers, to whom they will offer discounts in exchange for their investment.
"The goal with this round is not to raise the maximum volume of money, but to attract the maximum number of consumers to become GoodNews shareholders. We have set ourselves the challenge of getting about 5,000 people to take the step," explains the company's CEO, Jan Barthe, to The New Barcelona Post. Over the next 30 days, those interested in participating in this microfinancing operation can do so by investing a minimum of 20 euros. The company has established four different rewards according to the investment made, with tiers ranging from 20 euros, 500 euros, 1,000 euros and more than 1,000 euros, and associated discounts of between 20% and 50% on the purchase price of coffees at GoodNews locations.
For example, by investing 20 euros through Crowdcube, a 20% discount is obtained for a whole year. "Let's imagine a customer who drinks two GoodNews coffees a day, which means a consumption of around 800 euros a year. With that 20% discount, they are saving 160 euros in exchange for a 20 euro investment," Barthe exemplifies. "We want to continue sharing coffee and good vibes, but we also want all those who have believed in us to have the opportunity to be part of our journey," emphasizes the young entrepreneur, convinced that this "disruptive rewards program will set a precedent in the sector."
GoodNews was founded in 2020 in Barcelona by five friends (Jan Barthe, Fernando Conde, Alejandro Catasús, Lucas de Gispert and Ignacio Campos) and, currently, has 30 points of sale in the Catalan capital, Madrid and Paris. This figure is expected to grow to 40 locations by the end of this year, a year in which it is expected to reach a turnover of 6 million euros. The priority is currently focused on growing in the French capital, always with the grab and go coffee model, with small premises of a maximum of 70 square meters located in the best areas of the city, on very commercial streets with high office density.
Objective: reach 100 locations by 2025
New establishments will also be opened in Barcelona and Madrid, but the company rules out entering other Spanish cities for now. The focus of growth will be Europe, where, after Paris, the arrival in the Netherlands and Denmark is already being prepared, with openings in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, scheduled for 2024. The objective of GoodNews' expansion plan is to reach 60 locations in 2024 and raise the figure to 100 in 2025. In Paris, the firm expects to end the year with ten points of sale and add 15 locations in 2024.
Barthe anticipates that this October Good News will already reach break even, so it will be able to finance its daily operations with the resources it generates. Thus, the remaining amount from the 11 million euro investment round raised a year ago can be fully allocated to financing the new openings plan. That Series A round was led by the owner of Desigual, Thomas Meyer, and Barlon Capital, the fund promoted by Javier Rubió ---co-founder of Cluster, Nauta and Galdana---, and other investors who had previously invested in the company, which, until now, has raised 15 million, also participated in it.
According to the CEO, to make the leap in size and reach 100 locations, between 2024 and 2025 it will be necessary to launch a new Series B round, for an amount not yet quantified, but which is expected to be higher than the operation carried out in 2022. "Our mission is that in the next 10 years GoodNews will have become one of the largest coffee startups in the world, with a dominant position in the main cities of Europe," Barthe emphasizes.
GoodNews, which already has 130 employees, was born in the midst of the pandemic with the aim of reinventing newsstands, a model they launched with a new generation kiosk located at the confluence of Diagonal and Balmes street. The startup, however, evolved, transforming into a coffee-to-go brand aimed at a very young consumer who does not empathize with traditional brands and chains. Today, of the 30 points of sale, twelve (located in Barcelona and Madrid) are still unique kiosks that combine coffee and newspaper sales, but the rest are small premises focused solely on take away coffee cups.
"Our mission is that in the next 10 years GoodNews will have become one of the largest coffee startups in the world, with a dominant position in the main cities of Europe"Each establishment is equipped with an automatic coffee machine from the Jura brand and sells a single type of coffee, theGoodNews Barcelona, the result of mixing the beans of three specialty Arabica coffees from selected cooperatives in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. In addition, in the stores, you can also buy packages of whole bean or ground coffee of up to eight varieties, to prepare at home. The roasting and packaging process is carried out at the facilities of a supplier located in Cardona. "To have our own coffee roaster, we still need much more volume," explains Barthe, who estimates that it would be advisable to make the investment once sales exceed 50 million.
In addition to physical points of sale, GoodNews sells coffee online and has also launched a B2B division, that is, selling coffee by subscription and super-automatic machines to companies and offices. It already has more than a hundred companies as clients, totaling some 10,000 workers. In parallel, the business has diversified by entering the category of natural and vitamin supplements that help improve certain biological functionalities.
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