Startup Funding Club (SFC) has closed an investment of £100,000 into luxury lifestyle media brand The Jackal. The company, which received the capital from SFC’s early stage funds as well as SFC’s Angel Network, is currently crowdfunding on Seedrs.
Aimed at affluent and urban men, The Jackal intends to develop into a trusted and influential voice while simultaneously becoming an essential partner for luxury brands as well as providing opportunities to drive revenue through media, creative, and e-commerce. The magazine unites the traditions of quality print media, the dynamism of free distribution, and the directness of digital media.
Without having received any investment, the success of The Jackal has been extraordinary since its launch in 2017. Aside from establishing itself across print, online, email, and social, the magazine has also gathered a monthly digital audience of 50,000, had an audited circulation of 100,024, worked with over 40 luxury brands, and generated £1m revenue.
In its first funding round, the brand has secured £100,000 from Startup Funding Club’s Angel and Growth Funds as well as from the SFC Angel Network. This amount computes with additional funds The Jackal has acquired from private investors; despite having already exceeded its target (120%), the EIS round led by SFC will continue to increase numbers while it is still live on Seedrs.
The team intends to utilise these funds to develop the magazine’s digital audience and grow to the commercial capability. To fulfil its intentions of expanding, the investment will focus on two main areas: talent acquisition and audience growth.
The magazine intends to keep its crowdfunding campaign live for a little while longer in order to give any potential investors the chance to back it and to make the most out of the platform. With the round still open, The Jackal has potential to exceed its target even further, allowing the brand to further increase its marketing initiatives and drive audience growth even more quickly, providing more opportunities to generate revenue, and allowing co-founders Darren Sital-Singh and Daniel Tucker to meet their objectives expeditiously.
With the funds secured, The Jackal plans to increase the frequency of the magazine, launch its own podcast series, and hire two more staff members; all of which are the minimum of what was initially planned. The overfunding will then ensure a much stronger position to deliver the company’s revenue targets and subsequently ready the business for an e-commerce launch due to the opportunity for raised customer growth. This will drive the growth of the company and help it towards the ambition of achieving an exit in three years time.
Stephen Page, CEO at Startup Funding Club, said: ”We invested in The Jackal primarily because we like the management team. They have been able to run a successful magazine in a time when others have not been able to and that shows their resilience and determination. Their strategy of building an all purpose media business on the back of that success makes commercial sense and we have little doubt they are building a business that can withstand whatever is around the corner.”
Darren Sital-Singh, Managing Director at The Jackal, said: “We are delighted Stephen and the SFC team recognised the opportunity and put their faith in us as an executive team to build on our success. We are immensely proud of what we have achieved without any funding and are extremely excited about having the necessary capital to expand the team and grow our audience.”
