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Drip App looking for funding
Posted on: 2016-10-26 1:59 PM The aviation mogul was preparing to invest up to £500,000 in DripApp at a £2 million valuation, according to Ruben Grigri, the cofounder of DripApp, which takes a commission when any of its 30,000 users places a drinks order through its mobile app.
But Grigri told Business Insider on Tuesday that the billionaire withdrew his investment offer after the UK voted to leave the EU — a decision that cost easyJet £40 million in four weeks due to the crashing pound.
Haji-Ioannou was initially willing to invest the full £500,000 that DripApp needed if the company agreed to some sort of rebrand that brought DripApp closer to easyJet's own brand, according to Grigri. That is likely to have involved adopting easyJet's distinctive orange in DripApp and possibly renaming the startup to "easyCoffee" or "easy" something else, which DripApp wasn't too keen on. Haji-Ioannou was also willing to invest £250,000 in DripApp if it refused to rebrand.
"On the day of the Brexit, easyJet lost 42% of its valuation," said Grigri, who says he met Haji-Ioannou on three separate occasions, including once at his home in Monaco. "So I said: 'Ok it’s not a good moment to chase him.' So we didn’t chase him for one or two weeks, because I knew he was very busy.
"After the Brexit, he didn’t want too much conversation. He said: "OK I’m happy to invest but you have to go to the easy brand. I can’t go to a lot of negotiation because I’m very busy right now.' So the conversation went very cold. He was like you accept this or you don’t. We declined it."
After rejecting the offer, DripApp attempted to raise £200,000 on crowdfunding platform Seeders but it terminated the campaign after just three days because there wasn't enough interest. "It wasn’t a good idea to be honest," said the French entrepreneur.
But Grigri told Business Insider on Tuesday that the billionaire withdrew his investment offer after the UK voted to leave the EU — a decision that cost easyJet £40 million in four weeks due to the crashing pound.
Haji-Ioannou was initially willing to invest the full £500,000 that DripApp needed if the company agreed to some sort of rebrand that brought DripApp closer to easyJet's own brand, according to Grigri. That is likely to have involved adopting easyJet's distinctive orange in DripApp and possibly renaming the startup to "easyCoffee" or "easy" something else, which DripApp wasn't too keen on. Haji-Ioannou was also willing to invest £250,000 in DripApp if it refused to rebrand.
"On the day of the Brexit, easyJet lost 42% of its valuation," said Grigri, who says he met Haji-Ioannou on three separate occasions, including once at his home in Monaco. "So I said: 'Ok it’s not a good moment to chase him.' So we didn’t chase him for one or two weeks, because I knew he was very busy.
"After the Brexit, he didn’t want too much conversation. He said: "OK I’m happy to invest but you have to go to the easy brand. I can’t go to a lot of negotiation because I’m very busy right now.' So the conversation went very cold. He was like you accept this or you don’t. We declined it."
After rejecting the offer, DripApp attempted to raise £200,000 on crowdfunding platform Seeders but it terminated the campaign after just three days because there wasn't enough interest. "It wasn’t a good idea to be honest," said the French entrepreneur.
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