JamJar closes second fund on GBP 100m

JamJar Fund II held a first close in June 2021 and a final close in December 2021, said partner Katie Marrache. It exceeded its target of GBP 83.5m.

“We started investing as angels, then tidied up and had a single entity investing via a nominee structure,” Marrache said. Asked about the decision to raise a fund with institutional backing, she told Unquote: “We had two triggers for raising a new fund: first, we were being asked more and more to lead rounds by founders, and rounds are getting bigger. The reality was that we were capital constrained, and we wanted to write slightly larger cheques. The second reason was for follow-on investments – we have left huge pro rata on the table in follow-on rounds from Fund I and we wanted to follow on with more in Fund II investments."

"Timing-wise, it was also about confidence,” Marrache added. “People asked to invest alongside us from early on, but we wanted to focus on our craft ourselves first, making sure we were confident enough to take and manage people’s money.”

JamJar was founded in 2013 by Marrache and Innocent Drinks founders Adam Balon, Jon Wright and Richard Reed. Balon, Wright and Reed sold Innocent to Coca-Cola in 2013 for around USD 700m. JamJar’s exits to date include its sale of online pet retailer Tails.com to Nestlé alongside co-investors Octopus Ventures and Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit) in 2018. In January 2021, JamJar and Piper Private Equity sold popcorn brand Proper in an SBO to Exponent Private Equity.

According to the same statement, JamJar has a 50:50 gender balance in its investment team and its whole team receives carry from its funds. “Consumers are diverse and have diverse tastes – given that we are a consumer fund, it’s also important for us to have diversity on our team,” Marrache told Unquote.

Investors
The British Business Bank is acting as the fund’s cornerstone investor with a GBP 48m commitment via its Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF). The commitment to JamJar’s fund is the ECF’s largest to date, according to a statement. Family offices and undisclosed institutional investors have also backed the fund.

The firm raised additional capital for the fund via a Seedrs crowdfund, which raised GBP 2.4m. Its backers include 30 founders from JamJar’s portfolio, according to a statement. JamJar has absorbed any fees that would be incurred by the crowdfund backers, allowing them to invest on the same terms as institutional LPs, the firm said in a statement.

“We have a small, tight group of large LPs that we feel we can work really well with, they can add value at different points in the journey,” Marrache said. “Plus Seedrs allowed us to bring in ‘our crowd’ of Fund I founders, friends and family. But JamJar Partners are the second-largest group after the British Business Bank, so we ae putting our money where our mouth is.”

Investments
JamJar invests in European and UK-based consumer and consumer technology sector startups. Fund II makes initial investments of GBP 500,000-3m, investing at seed rounds and Series A rounds of less than GBP 5m. The fund expects to make up to 10 deals per year, with 30-50 expected in total. Half of its capital is reserved for follow-on rounds.

The firm intends to continue to syndicate with other VCs for its Fund II deals, Marrach told Unquote. “For both Fund I and Fund II, we have been and continue to be highly collaborative – we want to work with other VCs,” she said. “We have practical entrepreneurial experience and we want to be founders’ confidants and give them advice when they want it, on topics including branding, commercial, operations, or how to build a company culture. That expertise is different from what the tech investors we invest with bring, but we value their experience and want to bring this in, too.”

JamJar’s investments to date include online personalised stationery retailer Papier, as well as refillable deodorant brand Wild and oat milk producer Oatly.

“JamJar is sector-agnostic within consumer, but telehealth and digital health, disruptive finance and fintech, beauty and personal care, and food and drink are all of interest,” Marrache said. “But we never know what big consumer idea could be pitched to us next so keep an open mind.”

People
JamJar – Katie Marrache, Adam Balon, Jon Wright, Richard Reed (partners).

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