Georg Loichtl and his business that develops the idea of fast food to fast casual food has brought the venture from Lower Austria some 154.000 euros in fresh capital. The financing was raised through the crowdinvesting platform CONDA over the past few weeks.
Burgermasta’s concept of new premium-food class burger spots has persuaded over 100 investors to be a good asset and head of the project Georg Loichtl managed to gain more than the desired 70,000 euros for his venture. “The whole concept fits and is attractive for investors. Also, my experience in gastronomy did the trick and the decision of the location of the second restaurant was important for about 30 percent of the investors”, says Georg Loichtl who also already runs a caterer in Lower Austria.
Just one pillar
“Crowdinvesting is only one pillar of our financing concept,” said founder Loichtl, who also has some business angels on board and finances the rest with his own savings. When it comes to planning a crowdinvesting initiative, sufficient preparation time is crucial. The team around Burgermasta needed six months to get ready and sort out the details. “we had to clarify a lot of things because crowdinvesting is only part of our financing concept. This made the issue a little more complex”, adds Loichtl. He also referred to the fact that perseverance is important and that being able to answer questions well and being confident of yourself about your own concept is an absolute condition.
Gastronomy is seen as a rather conservative business, so why no conservative financing through a loan? Loichtl’s answer is clear: “It was never an option for me to get involved with a bank in this project. If it hadn’t worked with crowdinvesting, I would have tried to finance everything through the help of business angels. Luckily, everything went well and apart from being an attractive option for raising capital, crowdinvesting bore another big advantage for me: it is the perfect marketing tool!”
What does it have to do with the mayor?
German-speaking fellows must have noticed: The word ‘Burgermasta’ sounds, if pronounced in German, like the common slang word for ‘Bürgermeister’, meaning mayor. “Funny story”, says Loichtl, “many people asked me about this wording and when I was catering for a reception in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, the mayor actually approached me if I wanted to enter politics with that project. I explained the details and the concept of the rastaurant, we had a good laugh and concluded that when the first burger will be grilled in our soon-to-be-opened restaurant in Vienna, the mayor of St. Pölten will be attending to open the new place in a joint ceremony with Vienna’s mayor.”
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