Cork firm We Are Riley closes in on €1m crowdfunding target

We Are Riley, the Cork start-up that sells sustainable period products has launched a public crowdfunding campaign where it is seeking €1m in investment, and so far it is on track to surpass this target.

With approximately 20 days left of the campaign on the crowdfunding website Seedrs, We Are Riley has already raised more than €800,000 and intends to use the overall investment to grow its headcount from the seven people it already has and establish a presence in more international markets.

“This is our second crowdfunding campaign and following the success of our first campaign in late 2021, which went into over-funding, we decided to go again,” said We Are Riley co-founder Fiona Parfrey.

Crowdfunding is gaining traction as an option for early-stage companies recently.

Food order app Peckish, another firm from Cork, raised around €150,000 raised through another website called Spark Crowdfunding last year.

Ms Parfrey said that while We Are Riley has some angel investors getting on board in this fundraising round, the company hasn’t ruled out the VC route. “Although as a consumer brand, it is definitely harder to raise funds this way in Ireland,” she said.

Some VCs are becoming more conservative when it comes to investing due to the volatile economic environment, including a series of interest rate hikes. In recent years, start-ups have received a huge amount of VC funding due to historically low interest rates which allowed them to take more risks.