JamJar raises £100m fund to spread across early-stage consumer brands

JamJar Investments has raised over £100m in its new fund to support early-stage consumer brands across the UK and Europe.

The capital came from institutional investors, founders and a crowdfund including a cornerstone commitment of £48m from British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme.

London-based JamJar was founded in 2013 by Adam Balon, Jon Wright, and Richard Reed, the founders of Innocent Drinks which was sold to Coca-Cola for over $700m (£534.4m).

“JamJar is looking forward to helping new category-defining brands win their fight. Consumer consciousness is in our blood, and we are proud to be the first fund to absorb all Seedrs fees meaning our crowd has come in on exactly the same terms as larger LPs,” commented Katie Marraché, partner, JamJar.

JamJar’s first fund was created two days after the founders left Innocent in 2013. Since then it has backed a portfolio of high-performing companies, including What3words, Deliveroo and Oatly. JamJar normally invests between £500,000 to £3m in Seed or Series A rounds.

JamJar’s new fund looks to target 10 investments a year, with half of the fund being reserved for follow up investments.

Founded in 2014, the British Business Bank is the government’s economic development bank that aims to help the UK move to a net zero economy by giving access to finance for small businesses.

The British Business Bank’s main programmes are responsible for providing over £8.5bn of capital to nearly 95,000 small businesses.

“The British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme is key in helping to develop and maintain effective venture capital provision in the UK, lowering the barriers to entry for emerging fund managers and for those targeting under-served areas of the market,” said Ken Cooper, managing director, venture solutions, British Business Bank.

Last week London-based Climate VC launched its impact-first investment strategy.