Digital Brands Group launches UK crowdfunding campaign

Digital Brands Group, the Los Angeles-based curated group of digital-first lifestyle brands, has launched its first ever round of international fundraising with a campaign on UK-based crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube.

The fundraising is aimed to secure additional funds to accelerate the group’s continued expansion including plans to establish its flagship brand, DSTLD, in the UK market.

With 20 days left on the UK crowdfunding campaign, Digital Brands Group had secured nearly 1.4 million pounds against a target of 307,000 pounds. With all funds set to support the group in executing its build and buy strategy, with a plan to add further new fast growing, digitally-native lifestyle and fashion brands to its platform.

Commenting on the UK crowdfunding, Davis said in a statement: “Our first international round of fundraising marks a very exciting milestone for Digital Brands Group as we continue to deliver our ambitious growth plans. We have seen first hand how powerful it can be to raise funds from those who wear, buy, and love our products. We are delighted to be launching funding in the UK as we look to expand our brands and product into new markets.

“The fundraising not only supports our long term brand awareness strategy here in the UK, with DSTLD due to land in the UK in 2019. It also provides the UK public and investors with an exciting opportunity to be part of our growth story from the ground up.”

DSTLD (a vowel-less version of ‘distilled’) is a fast growing premium LA denim brand with a celebrity following including Alessandra Ambrosio, Sofia Richie and Cara Delevingne. It designs and offers premium denim and luxury essentials without retail mark-up due to its direct-to-consumer business model, and since its launch in 2014 its total revenue has surpassed 17 million US dollars.

Digital Brands Group targets UK market with crowdfunding campaign

In addition to DSTLD, the group is adding its second brand to the portfolio with the launch of Ace Studios, a luxury performance suiting and sportswear brand, in December. Ace will leverage Digital Brands Group’s chief executive Hil Davis’s extensive experience which includes founding J. Hilburn, a bespoke tailored clothing brand, which he built to a 55 million US dollar company in just six years.

Digital Brands Group states that its purpose is to “develop and acquire like-minded and fast growing direct-to-consumer brands into one portfolio”. The brands then leverage shared resources that support and market their products, while maintaining and creating their own unique customer values and identities. It is this model that it says helps to drive down fixed costs, fuel innovation, support the customer experience and ultimately drive down prices for consumers.

The group adds that all brands on the platform will have a digital-first focus in addition to an omni-channel customer experience, which will include showrooms, pop-ups and partnerships with retail brands and department stores.

Davis added: “The world of retail is moving more and more towards e-commerce led and direct-to-consumer models and we already have two very exciting brands in our portfolio.”

The group has previously completed successful fundraising activities in the US with its most recent fundraising round exceeding 1 million US dollars of investment secured in just five days. This marked the company’s third equity crowdfunding round with SeedInvest with more than 4.5 million US dollars previously raised through the fund-raising platform.

In a letter on the crowdfunding campaign, Davis added that this will “most likely” be the groups last crowdfunding raise, as its goal is to list on a public exchange in the first half of 2019.

Images: courtesy of Digital Brands Group