Pop culture icon Threadheads capital raise cracks $2m with record expressions of interest

The Melbourne-based company capped off a stellar start in June by closing off the raise with the highest expressions of interest in Australian history at 6,911.

This has beaten the previous record set by sustainable packaging company Zero Co, which recorded 6,300 expressions of interest late last year.

Threadheads has attracted more than 2,500 investors through the raise with the funds being applied to help the company expand into the US and grab a share of a global T-shirt market estimated to be worth $89 billion. The raise also managed to secure the second-highest number of investors, behind the more than 3,000 achieved by Zero Co which raised $5 million in just six hours.

Investors have been buoyed by rapid growth of Threadheads, founded four years ago by Ace Reunis and Marcus Siegel.

The company recorded sales of $13.2 million over the past year, driven by the ‘Get On The Beers’ design that mocked the Victorian Premier's warning during lockdowns that people should not be drinking at home with mates while pubs were closed down.

Threadheads has more than 240,000 customers in 40 countries and now sells about 300,000 T-shirts a year. The company’s in-house designs have attracted lucrative licensing deals with the likes of Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Unliever, Activision and SEGA.

Employing a team of 27, that has expanded from three four years ago, Threadheads has created more than 700 original pieces of art since inception while also developing proprietary printing software. It has ambitious plans to become the ‘biggest and best pop culture clothing brand’ in the world.

“We cannot believe the amount of support we’ve received despite stock markets tanking, out of control inflation, and crypto crashing,” Siegel explains.

“Achieving the highest EOIs for equity crowdfunding in Australia has given us the proof that our little company is bringing a much-needed smile to people’s faces.”

Threadheads is one of the fastest growing companies on the Birchal platform and the company now plans to step up that growth.

“The capital raise gives us an opportunity to take us to the next level through an expansion into the US and by bringing in new product lines and investing in licensing,” Siegel tells Business News Australia.

“We have pretty much funded everything in this business ourselves from day one. We expanded to Europe at the end of last year using our own funds but we felt that going into a large market like America and adding new products was something we needed new capital for.

“Our raise largely consists of retail investors and people that love the brand, so for us this is an added bonus because we have always wanted people to buy into what we were doing and share our vision.”

Threadheads already uses the latest digital printing equipment in Melbourne and its European arm in Prague, but it plans to establish a third production centre in the US.

Threadheads operates a unique model that prints all its garments to order, which minimises inventory costs and reduces waste. However, the company is currently exploring new sales channels including plans to distribute products to retailers both domestically and internationally. The company also plans to move into anime, gaming, sports and music.

The Threadheads business experienced a massive lift in sales during the pandemic, as it rode the online sales boom. However, Siegel concedes the business has its challenges in a highly competitive market sector.

“In many ways its saturated and you need to be able to bring something new to the table and we’ve been able to do that,” he says.

“We are where we are today because of the vision we had, the hard work and the belief. The challenge now is to keep growing and to keep adapting as the landscape changes, and I think we are in a pretty good place to do that.”