Haferkater, a provider of porridge and healthy snacks at railway stations, has opted for crowdinvesting. The company is thus further expanding its branch network and beginning its transformation into responsible ownership. GÖRG advised GLS Crowd and Haferkater on the structuring of the complex digital financing.
Oats, water and a little salt - these are the basic ingredients for a delicious porridge. Haferkater has been offering its healthy breakfast on the go in railway stations since 2016. It is now available in 23 stores. The expansion of the store network is based on a franchise system. The founders Leandro Burguete, Anna Schubert and Levin Siert attach great importance to good cooperation between all those involved.
Haferkater now has more than 120 employees. The founding team is now taking the next step: it is initiating the transition to a company with tied assets, better known as responsible ownership. Under the motto "We are taking Haferkater off the market", they want to raise capital for this with a crowdinvesting campaign via the GLS Crowd platform.
Responsible ownership is an alternative to conventional corporate ownership structures. It is based on the idea of a purpose-driven and long-term orientated economy. Various measures under company law are intended to ensure that the company is maintained in the long term and serves the realisation of its purpose. Well-known companies such as Zeiss, Bosch and Alnatura are already realising this concept and making it known to the public. The coalition agreement of the Ampel coalition envisages the creation of a specific legal form for companies with tied assets.
For smaller companies, the transition to steward-ownership can be a challenge due to corporate and capital market law requirements. Experts from the Frankfurt-based law firm GÖRG have developed a structure for GLS Crowd as Haferkater's financing partner that is designed to successfully raise the necessary capital and transform the company.
"With Haferkater, we are serving the needs of active people in urban areas. We focus on oats and a vegan-vegetarian range, and it is important to us to grow and operate sustainably and respectfully. A community like the GLS Crowd, which values investments in the socially sustainable sector, helps us to achieve this," says Anna Schubert, co-founder of Haferkater.
"For me, the idea of responsible ownership is the path to a new way of doing business. It's about rethinking the role and responsibility of companies and investors in society. The founders of GLS Bank followed this impulse 50 years ago and promoted fiduciary entrepreneurship," says Aysel Osmanoglu, CEO of GLS Bank, cooperation partner of the GLS Crowd.
"With PURPOSE, we have made it our mission to make responsible ownership better known and more accessible - and to find suitable solutions for companies. Since 2016, we have already supported more than 200 companies in their transition to responsible ownership and inspired many more. It has given me great pleasure to now also accompany the founding team of Haferkater on this journey," says Jakob Willeke, CEO of Purpose Ventures.
"More and more companies are thinking about implementing the concept of responsible ownership. Financing and the transition to this form of company are legally complex. We are therefore very pleased to be able to support the planned transformation of Haferkater on behalf of GLS Crowd," says Dr Tobias Riethmüller, partner at GÖRG in Frankfurt.
Advisors GLS Crowdfunding GmbH
GÖRG Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB
Dr Tobias Riethmüller (Lead, Partner, Corporate and Capital Markets Law, Digital Financing Platforms, Frankfurt am Main)
Patrick Wambold (Associate, Corporate and Capital Markets Law, Digital Financing Platforms, Frankfurt am Main)
Alexander Hofsepjan (Associate, Corporate and Capital Markets Law, Frankfurt am Main)
