The Craftory is a

British-American British American usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Orkney, and the Isle of Man). It is primarily a demographic or histor ...

venture capital fund Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...

headquartered in Piccadilly, London, and also based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Launched in early 2018 by

Ernesto Schmitt Ernesto Gottfried Schmitt (born August 1971) is an Americans, American-born entrepreneur, serial entrepreneur and investor. He is co-founder of The Craftory, a $600m VC fund, venture capital fund for cause-driven Challenger brand, challenger bra ...

and

Elio Leoni Sceti Elio Leoni Sceti is an Italian businessman and an investor in early-stage companies. He is co-founder of The Craftory, an investment group for challenger brands in the consumer products space. He is chairman of LSG Holdings and a non-executive boa ...

as an alternative to traditional

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

, it focuses on cause-driven investment in the

consumer goods A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike a intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good, but ...

sector, investing in companies that positively impact the categories they serve. As of 2022, The Craftory has more than $600 million in permanent, early stage and growth capital (Series A, Series B etc.) to back ' challenger brands'. The company is the first UK based

B Corp In business, B Corporation (also B Lab or B Corp) is a private certification of for-profit companies of their " social and environmental performance." It is distinct from the legal designation as a benefit corporation. B Corp certification is ...

fund, and in 2020 ''Forbes'' characterised the company as investing in companies 'disrupting the planet for good'.

History

The Craftory was founded in 2018 by Elio Leoni Sceti, who was formerly head of the Iglo Group and music publisher

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

, and Ernesto Schmitt – a serial entrepreneur (

Beamly Beamly (legally incorporated as Beamly Ltd.) was a technology company based in London, UK and New York City, United States. The company was founded in April 2011 as tBone TV, later renamed to Zeebox, by Ernesto Schmitt and Anthony Rose. It was ...

DriveTribe DriveTribe is a Social networking service, social networking platform founded as an online hub for auto enthusiast content and digital socialising. Founded by presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond alongside entrepreneur Erne ...

Fabula AI Fabula AI was an artificial intelligence company founded in 2018. It focused on geometric deep learning, and used it to tackle the dissemination of 'fake news', tracking how content spread on social networks rather than focusing on the conten ...

). The Craftory's initial focus was specifically investing in new, digitally-activated

brands. It aimed to remove traditional advertising, instead utilising brand storytelling and

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...

as a means for brand growth. In 2018, early investors in The Craftory included Spice Private Equity &

GP Investments GP Investments (also GP Investimentos), is a leading alternative investment firm in Latin America with a strong presence in asset management, principally private equity funds. The firm's shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and trad ...

, who invested $60 million in May 2018. The remainder of the early capital coming from private wealth.

Focus

The current fund size is $600 million in permanent capital, and only invests in ‘

Challenger Brand A challenger brand is a brand in an industry where it is neither the market leader nor a niche brand. Challenger brands are categorised by a mindset which sees they have business ambitions beyond conventional resources, and an intent to bring change ...

s’. These are primarily backed at early and growth stage (Series A, Series B etc.) The fund actively invests in up to 10

challenger brand A challenger brand is a brand in an industry where it is neither the market leader nor a niche brand. Challenger brands are categorised by a mindset which sees they have business ambitions beyond conventional resources, and an intent to bring change ...

s with annual revenues of more than $10m, in various consumer sectors including

beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

and personal care. The Craftory has made several investments to date, including $18 million into now unicorn

NotCo NotCo is a unicorn Chilean food-tech company producing plant-based alternatives to animal-based food products. NotCo was founded in 2015 by Matias Muchnick, Pablo Zamora and Karim Pichara and utilizes machine learning to replicate dairy produ ...

, the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an plant based food company. $18 million into gender neutral underwear apparel TomboyX. $16 million into sustainable detergent pod maker Dropps. $20 million into Present Life. $20 million into sustainable diaper brand Dyper and $22 million into natural dog-food brand Edgard & Cooper.

People

The Craftory was founded in 2018 by

and

. The fund's board includes Belgian financier and hedge fund manager

Pierre Lagrange Pierre Philippe Alexandre Lagrange (born 15 March 1962) is a Belgian economist, hedge fund manager, financier, and a co-founder of GLG Partners. His net worth is estimated at £500 million according to ''The Sunday Times''. Early life and education ...

, and the Brazilian Chairman of

, Fersen Lambranho. The founding team included senior partner Thiago Rodrigues, who was former

Managing Director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. In 2018, Jon Lunetta joined as US Craft Partner. Other Craft Partners include Jamie Swango, formerly CMO at

Deliveroo Deliveroo is a British online food delivery company founded by Will Shu and Greg Orlowski in 2013 in London, England. It operates in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait ...

, Jonathan Miller, JP Thurlow (published in

Elle ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

and

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

Simon David Miller Simon David Miller is a British film writer, director, producer and investor, having also co-founded several technology media companies. His debut feature, the Scottish Gaelic feature film, '' Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle,'' was nominated f ...

( BAFTA nominated filmmaker) and Atkins Dondo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craftory, The Investment management companies of the United Kingdom Venture capital firms of the United Kingdom Private equity firms of the United Kingdom Companies based in London