Bartle in crowdfunding drive to raise $5m for Outland Denim
Outland Denim announces equity crowdfunding campaign for its social-impact jeans
Since James Bartle launched Outland Denim in 2016, he has been on a mission to empower and employ women rescued from human and sex trafficking.
Now, he is hoping to engage ethically minded investors to be part of that story as the company launches an equity crowdfunding campaign, to raise funds for sales and marketing.
“We always wanted as many people to benefit from the brand as possible,” Bartle tells The Australian. “To be ‘the people’s brand’.
“Now we feel like we’ve built the foundations to a stage that is ready to scale from a sales and marketing perspective. We wanted to be really secure and make sure we had the best retailers in each region before opening up to the public like this.”
The company currently has a number of silent investors making up a minority investment, with Bartle retaining the majority, which will continue following this round of crowdfunding.
“The confronting part is that you’re putting it all out there for world to see. What if nobody cares, nobody gets behind it? By the same token, we probably can’t be true to ourselves if we don’t do it this way. We’d be selling out a little bit if we did it the traditional way with venture capitalists.”
Expressions of interest are open now until March 27 via Birchal; the crowdfunding round will open on April 1.
Potential investors will be able to invest as little as $250; eventually the company hopes to raise as much as $5m, although after expressions of interest close at the end of March they will set the amount to be raised in this round.
The brand made global headlines just two years into business when Meghan Markle wore their Harriet jeans during the Royal Tour to Australia.
It resulted in a 3000 per cent spike in sales over the following two weeks and allowed another 46 women to be employed and trained by the company.
Outland now employs around 120 women, who connect with Outland via a number of organisations. In addition to their manufacturing training and employment, they receive addition education in subjects including English, financial planning and women’s health with a view to getting them out of poverty.
In recent months the brand has launched into US department stores Bloomingdales and Nordstrom. It is also stocked by David Jones in Australia, Holt Renfrew in Canada, as well as its ecommerce platform, which is available in a number of regions.
In addition to the social outcomes of the employees, the denim is also made as sustainably as possible, using organic cotton, and created in their new state-of-the-art wash and finishing facilities in Cambodia that reduce water and power usage.
The company will soon start manufacturing for other brands who wish to share in the social outcomes and low environmental impacts of the brand, following a successful collaboration with New Zealand designer Karen Walker.
Bartle is keen for both “mum and dad” and more sophisticated investors to share in the business, and its dividends.
“The way I see it, the more investors we have, the better. Then we have a community of people, power in numbers.”
Bartle believes that now is the perfect time to start crowd sourcing, given the current focus on ethical and sustainable products and investment.
“It doesn’t matter where I’ve been in the world, people are really engaged in this particular movement towards ethical products – where did my food come from, who made my clothes and how has the environment been impacted as a result?
“The reason I’m confident in Outland Denim raising in this way is because we have spent so long investing in that.”
The brand last month won the Thomson Reuters Foundation 2020 Stop Slavery Enterprise Award for small and medium companies at an event in London.
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