SPOKE, the custom-made on-demand menswear brand, announced on Monday that it has secured a £5M crowd-funding round on the Seedrs platform. The round was led by existing investors, led by Oxford Capital, with participation from Forward Partners, BGF, and 24 Haymarket.
How will the funding be used?
The funding will enable SPOKE to invest in the team, technology, and marketing to accelerate its reach in international markets.
The US is SPOKE’s second-largest market after the UK and is currently growing at over 100% per annum. The company is planning to build a US team to quadruple revenue by 2024.
The team has just opened a distribution centre in Germany. The site will be used to hand finish all items for local distribution, and service efficiently its growing business across Continental Europe.
Ben Farren, CEO, and founder of SPOKE says, “We are experiencing an exhilarating post-pandemic recovery, with the growth of more than 60% year-on-year, as work and going out trends normalise. The monies raised will enable us to accelerate our progress in our international markets of Europe, and the US where we are currently growing at over 100% pa, and progress towards our vision of building the World’s most personalised menswear brand.”
Personal menswear brand
Founded by Ben Farren in 2014, SPOKE is a personal menswear brand, which has developed a unique platform to deliver a customised finish in over 400 size options across its legwear ranges, covering leg length, waist and build.
Applying the same obsession with fit to the upper body, SPOKE has expanded its offering to Ts, polos, and shirts.
SPOKE’s proprietary Fit Finder, machine learning technology will match a customer to their perfect size in just sixty seconds.
Currently, the company operates in the UK, US, and Europe, with approximately 30% of revenues for FY22 expected to be generated from international markets.
In 2021 SPOKE became one of the first companies to secure investment from ITV AdVentures, a new venture set up by ITV to provide TV advertising in return for an equity stake.
At present, SPOKE employs a team of 40 and is based in Richmond, London.
Seedrs is an online investment platform that allows investors to buy and sell shares in private companies, and ambitious entrepreneurs to gain investment for their businesses while building communities in the process.
Clement Bigot, Senior Investment Manager at Seedrs says, “The success of Spoke’s crowdfunding campaign was testament to the product and community they have built since their launch in 2014. With over 1,500 investors, the campaign was the most successful campaign on the Seedrs platform so far in 2022.”
