BrewDog Closes ‘Equity For Punks USA’

One of the things that has defined BrewDog’s now international organization is their puckish attitude and creative business philosophy, an approach exemplified by their Equity for Punks crowdfunding programs, which they recently introduced in the states.

When Scotland’s James Watt and Martin Dickie founded BrewDog in 2007 they were its sole employees, well them and their dog. But by 2009 BrewDog had become the UK’s fastest growing craft beer brand and they desperately needed cash to expand and keep up with the growing demand.

Enter Equity for Punks, a ground-breaking first, which offered their fans the opportunity to buy shares in the company online. Over 1,300 ‘punks’ invested that first year and their punk business model was born.

By 2016 BrewDog’s UK Equity for Punks had become a passionate family of more than 55,000 shareholders…

Which brings us to Equity for Punks USA…

Launched in 2016 to ‘turbo-charge” their new brewery which is now up-and-running in Columbus, Ohio, BrewDog’s Equity for Punks USA became an immediate success.

But now after having raised $7 million and added almost 9,000 new US shareholders to their global family BrewDog has announced that they’ve officially closed Equity for Punks USA, far short of their originally announced goal of raising $50 million.

So what really led to BrewDog closing their adventurous US campaign so suddenly?

Venture capital… that’s what happened.

In April TSG Consumer Partners, a San Francisco-based private equity firm already invested in Pabst and Sweetwater Brewing acquired a 22% stake in the company, a $265 million deal that netted Watt and Dickie more than $100 million.

It also allowed BrewDog to invite their original UK shareholders to enjoy some of that ‘payday’ and sell up to 15 percent of their shares should they choose to.

So although BrewDog is hardly trumpeting it, TSG’s equity infusion may have been the primary reason for the brewery’s recent announcement that they had officially closed Equity for Punks USA.

And we’ll be interested to see how BrewDog will approach funding issues going forward, especially in light of their expressed intention to open a new brewery in Australia.

All image credits: BrewDog