Anyone who didn’t make an effort to shop local prior to the pandemic has most likely changed their ways by now. Throughout COVID-19, there was a huge amount of support for local businesses and thus local economies.
Hoping to carry this forward into a post-pandemic world is Swipii, a marketing tool and revenue maximiser for neighbourhood businesses. Backed by LocalGlobe, and founded by a Forbes 30 under 30 entrepreneur, it integrates with customers’ bank cards and gives them cashback every time they shop local. Swipii provides a loyalty stamp card – for the digital era.
Given the global cashback market’s value of upwards of £60B, Swipii looks set to do well in its Crowdcube fundraise. It’s just beaten its £750K target – with nearly a month to go.
Spencer Matthews off Made in Chelsea is becoming a big name in the world of entrepreneurship; we’ve covered his alcohol-free spirit and cocktail company CleanCo previously, and can now announce he’s stepped in as an Angel investor for MunchFit.
MunchFit provides healthy food to the likes of Barry’s Bootcamp and operates a premium delivery service – meeting demand for meal plans that work in line with fitness goals. People can order up to four meals a day, six days a week, and Matthews was previously one of them.
“Like many of us, I appreciate what healthy eating looks like, but simply avoiding junk food wasn’t going to cut it for the challenge ahead,” he comments. As of Thursday, MunchFit - which was founded back in 2013 - is also crowdfunding. The aim is to raise £1M, with £830K raised at the time of writing.
A funky one from Kickstarter, meet SOAPBOTTLE – a range of cosmetics products packaged in, you guessed it, soap. Based in the Netherlands, the SOAPBOTTLE concept was developed by Jonna Breitenhuber while she was a master’s student and packaging designer for cosmetic products.
Plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose – but most bathroom products still come packaged in it. Breitenhuber set out to change this, bottling liquids like shampoo and shower gel in a solid container that ultimately turns into hand soap. All ingredients are natural and there’s no animal testing involved. You can even pick from a variety of colours and scents.
