ReFunk Upcycling to share angel investment experience at Access to Finance event


Posted: Fri 26th Aug 2022
ReFunk Upcycling will be joining the panel at the Access to Finance - Securing Angel Investment event on 30 August 2022.
One of the four co-founders will be on hand to share their story so far and tell the audience how they secured €100,000 in angel investment.
Earlier this month, co-founder Ellen Ryall shared ReFunk’s funding story with Enterprise Nation. Below is an excerpt from the interview, which you can read in full.
You raised €100,000 in angel investment. How did this come about?
We started looking at different investing options. We did explore the idea of crowdfunding because our idea appeals to a wide audience, it's very consumer oriented. But in the end, we decided to go down the angel route.
We got our angel investment in March and that's been a complete game-changer. It's allowed us to hire our tech developer full-time, but also really ramp up our marketing and develop the platform. It's also allowed co-founder Ellie to go full-time in the business.
Explain to us how you went about getting your initial investment? What did you have to do to prepare for it?
We've found throughout the journey that building a network and connections is essential, especially for girls who are all first-time founders, straight out of college with no business connections.
We went to Web Summit in October of last year and that just completely inspired us and, honestly, lit a fire under us. So, we put together a really impressive pitch deck. We had a lot of market research, and traction which proved what we could do if we got funding.
We got on LinkedIn, messaged loads of our connections and started telling whoever we were speaking to we were looking for investments.
We started looking in late November, only at angel investors. We didn't just want anybody, but someone who was going to be strategic value to us as well.
At the end of the day, there's a lot of money about that founders can access. But it's really important that the investor you bring on also brings strategic elements and adds value in a way other than financial.
Find out more about the Access to Finance - Securing Angel Investment event
Enterprise Nation Ireland has teamed up with a range of finance partners to show you which funding options are available and help you gain access to them.
Take part in interactive workshops, e-learning modules and free in-person consultations to move your business to the next level.
