Our 800th funded business: PecoPoncho
We’re thrilled to announce that we recently reached a milestone of 800 funded businesses, providing over £8 million in startup funding to some incredible businesses in just two years. It’s amazing to see the businesses we funded going forth and being successful, and we’re excited about funding even more!
To celebrate we asked the founder of our 800th funded business, Lettija Lee of PecoPoncho, what she plans to do with the funding. Peco Poncho create game-changing biodegradable ponchos that are perfect for festivals and outdoor events, helping to fight the problem of abandoned raincoats and the subsequent littering.
In 2014 PecoPoncho made it to the finals of Pitch to Rich, so we’re thrilled to see Lettija being part of Virgin StartUp now too! Here Lettija shares how how the funding will help PecoPoncho grow.
What’s next for PecoPoncho
“I came up with the idea for Peco Poncho at a music festival in Hyde Park. It rained heavily out of the blue (as we would expect during a typical English summer!) After seeing plastic disposable ponchos strewn around Hyde Park and knowing that they could take hundreds of years to breakdown in landfill, I thought we could do better - so set out to find a solution.
“At the moment we are preparing for an imminent website relaunch. We have made upgrades and the new website will be more polished and clean. We took Richard’s advice from Pitch to Rich 2014 and put a strong focus on our custom-printing biodegradable poncho supply business arm, in addition to individual poncho purchases. We print client’s logos on our biodegradable ponchos for large outdoor occasions like festivals, theme parks and sporting events.
“The new website now reflects this business offering clearly. Increasingly, companies and governments are looking for ways to reduce plastic waste, and our biodegradable and compostable rain ponchos are a helpful step towards achieving that at outdoor events. So we will be focused on marketing for the next few months to ensure that clients have enough lead time to order their own branded biodegradable ponchos for 2016 outdoor events.
“We received just over £3k to pay for an essential license needed to back up our biodegradable claim. Whilst the license is very expensive, it's an important investment to demonstrate that we comply with relevant European advertising claims.”
