Mon 17th Jun 2019 - Black Sheep Coffee raises £13m from private investors to support expansion Black Sheep Coffee raises £13m from private investors to support expansion: Black Sheep Coffee, the speciality coffee shop operator, has raised £13m in a new funding round to support its growth ambitions. The company has raised the funds from private investors including Tellef Thorleifsson, first investor in Spotify, chief executive of Norfund and co-founder of Northzone Fund; Bill Shultz, president of Coca-Cola Canada and board member at Coca-Cola Global; Tore Myrholt, Antler chairman and former chairman of McKinsey Consulting Group; and Jacob Schram, former chief executive at CircleK. Pre-money valuation for the funding round was £96.2m, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to £109.2m. The funding will allow Black Sheep Coffee to continue its global expansion, with the aim of growing its existing number of sites from 34 to 70 by the end of 2019. Founders Gabriel Shohet and Eirik Holth said: “We started Black Sheep Coffee to challenge big corporate brands on their sustainable approach, and rid the world of boring, average-tasting coffee. We have made a conscious effort to stay clear of institutional investors in order to keep our independence and long-term vision for the brand. As we continue to grow globally, we’ll continue to adhere to our core values – sourcing the best beans in the world, hire the best baristas in town, get rid of plastic, support our homeless communities, never fear competition, open right next door instead." The funding, which brings Black Sheep Coffee's total funding to £25m since it was founded in 2013, will go towards the company’s global expansion throughout Asia, the US, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the GCC region, starting with UAE this summer. Black Sheep already has a presence in Manila and is looking to open one more shop in the Phillipines before the end of the year. In addition, Black Sheep Coffee will look to further develop its newly launched e-commerce platform. The brand has achieved 25% like-for-like sales growth across the past two quarters. It has also increased annualised turnover by 56% between the fourth quarter of 2018 and first quarter of 2019 from £8.5 to £13.3m and aims to reach £25m annualised turnover by the end of the year.