Sugru investment sticks — surpasses £1m crowdfunding target by more than £2m

8 Jul 2015

Sugru founder Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh

Sugru, the mouldable glue start-up led by Irishwoman Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh, has attracted £3.3m (€4.6m) in crowdfunding — far more than its initial target of £1m.

This means that at the time of writing the crowdfunding campaign is 337pc oversubscribed. The campaign attracted more than 2,542 investors, with the largest single investment of £1m by one investor.

The campaign on Crowdcube is just one day from concluding.

Sugru is a moldable glue designed to fix almost anything.

Named by Time Magazine as one of the 50 best inventions in the world the year it launched and dubbed “21st Century Duct Tape” by Forbes, the patented product is now used by more than 1m people in 160 countries and has just launched into the US with Lowe’s and Target.

Sugru plans on using the capital to grow awareness of the brand and support its fast-moving retail expansion in the UK, Scandinavia and the US.

Crowdfunding is increasingly being used by venture capital investors as a way of testing a company’s valuation as well as potential demand for products, and as experiments go this is one that sticks for Sugru.

The latest crowdfunding campaign for 14pc equity values the company at almost €38m.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com