M Restaurants gets off to flying start in £1.35m crowdfunding campaign to launch M Social concept: M Restaurants has got off to a flying start in its £1.35m fund-raise on crowdfunding platform Seedrs to launch its M Social concept and further expansion plans. The company, founded by Martin Williams, is operating a different share structure to the standard “pre-money valuation” and “equity offered” with all Seedrs investors receiving B shares. The shares include a “double capital protection” mechanism, which means that until shareholders have received two times their capital back, their payout will be based on the amount invested rather than the number of shares held. So far, the campaign has raised £906,400 from 24 investors with 59 days remaining. The pitch states: “In November 2014, we opened M Threadneedle Street – our award-winning, multi-faceted venue, which houses two 100-cover restaurants, a destination cocktail bar, a wine-tasting room and private dining. M Victoria Street, our second venue, opened in early 2016. Again multi-faceted (and with the addition of a very cool wine store and a private members bar). Now it’s time for M Social. These are local venues designed to accommodate a modern cocktail and wine bar and offer casual all-day ‘social bar food’. The time of day will dictate the demand for each of these elements, which have been designed to maximise sales opportunities and accommodate demand. Our first ‘M Social’ venue is expected to be a new 100-cover ‘Butlers Wharf’ style building, complete with a riverside view and outside terrace. The proposed venue sits directly opposite a mainline station, is ideally positioned to serve daily commuters and become a genuine ‘home from home’ for residents, visitors and local businesses. The ethos of M is simple – aspirational yet accessible drinking and dining in a comfortable, quality environment, offering world-class products, plus the finest examples of hospitality and guest recognition which create a ‘home from home’ for a community of guests, who appreciate who we are and feel a sense of belonging to the brand. Through technology and world class hospitality, we aim to create fantastic local hub hot spots in the suburbs of Greater London, that complement our two flagship venues in central London. We have a fantastic M community, built from regular diners, Den members and current M investors. We would like you to join our family too. The multi-faceted structure of the M venues gives us a number of revenue streams. Guests visit M for a glass of wine, beer or a most excellent cocktail, which drives strong ‘wet’ sales. M Wine Store and its online sister www.mwinestore.co.uk also drive additional revenues to M and of course the ‘hero offering’ for which M has become so highly regarded is the food and wine offerings that make for a perfect breakfast, lunch or dinner. The above makes M a very robust model, as does the addition of our new M Social brand, which is designed to attract the same guests who enjoy our flagship central London venues and cater of the for their personal drinking and dining needs ‘close to home’. The proceeds will be used to accelerate growth and ‘ring-fence’ £1.1m to fund the capex of restaurant three – M Social; build and open a 50-cover M Den private members' lounge in the basement of M Threadneedle St; and build working capital to support the business in both the short and long term. Our growth strategy is to grow to maturity the two flagship central London sites and facilitate the growth of the brand through two smaller, less central venues with materially lower rents and capex requirements. These venues will be a more casual lower price point variant of the current offering appealing to the significant amount of evening and weekend trade in residential areas of high disposable income and high numbers of commuter residents, who are already familiar with the M brand.”