Brasseria Family has launched a crowdfunding campaign to open its third Brasseria restaurant in South Kensington.
The all-day Italian restaurant operators have launched with a target of £1.05m on CrowdCube and has raised £1.18m from 52 investors as of today (21 February), exceeding its target.
Its investors include Simon Woodroffe, restaurateur and founder of Yo! Sushi.
The Brasseria Family founders have identified a lack of “authentic all-day Italian offers in London with the charm of Parisian brasseries and style of Milanese trattorias,” according to the crowdfunding page.
The business was founded in 2018 by third-generation operators Andrea and Alberto Fraquelli, who are descended from Lorenzo Fraquelli, who moved to the UK from Italy in the 1950s to set up Spaghetti House.
Its USP is Italian family style venues with “warm service, atmosphere, and comfort food,” with all-day restaurants across multiple sites and a growing number of covers.
The group served more than 260,000 customers across its two locations in London’s Marylebone and Westbourne Grove in 2023, with an active database of 30,000.
Investors have the chance to become co-owners, with additional rewards including free meals, invites to the launch party, and investor discounts for life ranging from 15-25%.
Writing on LinkedIn, Alberto Fraquelli said: “Some people have asked the reason why I decided to launch a Crowdfunding campaign for Brasseria Family? For me it is simple, there are three roots to our success; intellectual capital, financial capital & human capital.
“Our rooted capital philosophy started with an idea created by my brother and I; to create one of the first accessible & classically cool all day Italian restaurants in Central London (the only other one at the time was Cecconi’s, which we admired greatly). We quickly realised the heart of our business is our regular, returning client base. The people we surrounded ourselves with, the human capital, brought the energy & love which made & continues to make La Brasseria Milanese in Marylebone so special. Many of those intimately involved now co-own with us today.
“The next branch in our vision tree was Brasseria Notting Hill required solid angel investors, including our first investor Simon Woodroffe (founder of YO! Sushi). Throughout the journey we have enhanced our shared ownership structure to include employees, suppliers and customers.
“A logical next step was to launch a Crowdfunding campaign, which will add a lot more vested investors to our current pool of co-owners, making our roots and chances of success even stronger!”
