Rook & Rye Crowdfunding Pitch

Crowdfunding pitch deck

A campaign deck for Rook & Rye, an invented Bristol drinks brand raising £850,000 from several hundred small investors rather than one fund. It reads nothing like a venture deck because nobody is in the room to answer questions: the numbers arrive on slide two, the market figures are sourced, the valuation and the minimum ticket are printed on a slide, and the last thing on screen is the risk warning a regulated financial promotion has to carry.

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EQUITY RAISE

BRISTOL · OCTOBER 2026 · EIS ELIGIBLE

The Drink You Order Second

Craft non alcoholic aperitifs, in 1,240 bars and farm shops across the UK.

Rook & Rye Drinks Ltd

Raising £850,000 at a £7.2M pre-money valuation

BITTER · BOTANICAL · SOBER

Slide 1 · cover · The whole proposition and the raise on the first screen, because most readers stop here.

Rook & Rye by the numbers

£1.86M

FY26 revenue

+74%

Revenue growth on FY25

52%

Gross margin

1,240

Stockists

4,800

Subscribers

41%

Repeat purchase rate

62,000

Instagram followers

31,000

Newsletter subscribers

£850K

Raising now

£7.2M

Pre-money valuation

02

Slide 2 · metrics · Ten numbers on one screen, which is what a retail investor scrolls looking for.

Why non alcoholic drinks disappoint

Five things every alternative gets wrong

01
Dealcoholised wine

Stripping alcohol out of wine takes the structure with it. What is left is grape juice that costs eleven pounds.

02
Sweet mixers

Most no alcohol drinks are built on sugar because sugar hides the gap. The average bottle carries 34 grams a serve.

03
Gin impersonators

A spirit that promises to taste like gin is judged against gin, and it loses that comparison every single time.

04
Nothing to order

A bar with no adult alternative hands you a lime and soda. That is why the non drinker leaves after one round.

05
What we built instead

A bitter botanical aperitif that was never trying to be anything else. Six grams of sugar, served over ice with tonic.

03

Slide 3 · content · The gap in the category, in five steps a reader with no drinks knowledge can follow.

What we make

Three products, one still, brewed and bottled in Somerset.

Rook Aperitif

Bitter orange, gentian and wormwood. Our first product and 61 percent of revenue. £24 a bottle, and a bar pours fourteen serves from it.

Rye Spritz

A lighter pink grapefruit aperitif made for the person who found Rook too bitter. Launched March 2026, already 24 percent of revenue.

Botanical sodas

Four single serve cans at £2.40, sold in farm shops and at events. Low margin on purpose: this is how somebody meets the brand.

04

Slide 4 · checklist · The three products, in plain language, with what each one costs and who buys it.

TRACTION

Revenue by half year

£1.86M

FY26 revenue

+74%

On FY25

52%

Gross margin

H1 2024
H2 2024
H1 2025
H2 2025
H1 2026
H2 2026
0M0.3M0.6M0.9M1.2M

05

Slide 5 · metrics · The revenue curve by half year, with the three numbers that qualify it beside it.

MARKET

Where we sit

£3.1B

UK adult soft drinks

Everything an adult orders when they are not ordering alcohol, at retail value.

£520M

No and low alcohol

The UK no and low category at retail value, growing at about 20 percent a year.

£46M

Premium aperitifs

Bottles over £18 sold through bars, delis and farm shops. Our actual competitive set.

06

Slide 6 · metrics · The market, sourced, and narrowed to the segment we actually compete in.

What people say

From 1,240 stockists, 4,800 subscribers and a 4.7 average across 2,100 reviews.

It is the only no alcohol bottle we have never had to explain. People order it because it tastes like a drink, not like an apology.

Ida Fenwick

Bar manager, The Long Room, Bristol

I stopped drinking in 2024 and spent a year ordering soda water. Rook is the first thing that made going out feel normal again.

Callum Reddy

Subscriber since March 2025

We took two cases as a trial and reordered in nine days. It now outsells our tonic. That has never happened with a new brand.

Priya Nandra

Buyer, Halloway Farm Shops, 11 sites

07

Slide 7 · testimonial · Community proof, which carries more weight with a crowd investor than with a fund.

WHY US

We built it for us

We were the ones not drinking. Sonia stopped in 2021 and I followed a year later, and between us we spent eighteen months ordering lime and soda in every good bar in Bristol.

So we made the drink we wanted. Sonia had spent nine years as a distiller and knew how to build bitterness without alcohol carrying it. I had spent eleven years selling into independent retail and knew who would take a punt on it.

We sold the first 400 bottles out of a car. Everything since has come from a bar manager telling another bar manager.

01
What we know

Sonia Marchetti spent nine years distilling for a Somerset gin producer. Every recipe here is hers, and the still is ours, not a contract packer.

02
What it cost

Theo Bramall turned down a supermarket listing in 2025 because the margin would have been 19 percent. It would have doubled revenue and killed the brand.

08

Slide 8 · intro · The founding story, which the platform data says drives more decisions than the numbers.

Use of funds

Six lines. The first two are the reason we are raising at all.

£850K

to double production and clear the stock ceiling

Bottling line

£280K

A second line takes us from 9,000 to 22,000 bottles a month.

Stock

£180K

We ran out of Rook for three weeks in June. That is what this fixes.

Marketing

£160K

Sampling in 400 bars, plus the first paid work we have ever done.

Team

£120K

Two field sales in the north, where we have 41 stockists and no cover.

Export

£70K

Netherlands and Ireland registration, labelling and a first container.

Working capital

£40K

Buffer. Botanicals are bought once a year and paid for up front.

09

Slide 9 · investment · Where the money goes, itemised, because a crowd investor cannot ask a follow up question.

The terms

Everything you are agreeing to, in five answers.

What am I buying?

Ordinary shares in Rook & Rye Drinks Ltd, held through the platform nominee, with the same rights as the founders shares.

What is the valuation?

£7.2M before this round and £8.05M after it. The £850K on offer is 10.6 percent of the company.

Is there tax relief?

The company has advance assurance for EIS. SEIS no longer applies because we passed the trading age limit in 2026.

What is the minimum?

Twenty pounds. The average investment in this category is about £700, and 61 percent of our own list have said they will take part.

When does it close?

The private phase runs to 14 October and the public campaign for 30 days after that, or until the £850K is filled.

10

Slide 10 · content · The terms, written as the five questions a first time investor actually asks.

Investor rewards

Bonus shares are issued at close. Everything else arrives in the post.

Regular

For anyone joining the round

£250

and above

3% bonus shares

A mixed case of six bottles

Name in the 2027 annual

15% off for life

Most investors

Founding

The tier most of our list picks

£1,000

and above

5% bonus shares

Everything in Regular

Distillery day for two in Somerset

A call with Sonia before close

Recommended

Cellar

Capped at forty investors

£5,000

and above

10% bonus shares

Everything in Founding

A cask named after you

First refusal on the next round

Limited

11

Slide 11 · pricing · The bonus share tiers, which are structural in a crowdfunding round and absent from a VC one.

Own a piece of it.

Investing in early stage businesses carries risk, including loss of capital and illiquidity. You should only invest what you can afford to lose, and tax relief depends on individual circumstances.

Read the full campaign: rookandrye.example/invest

12

Slide 12 · closing · One next step and the risk warning, which a regulated financial promotion has to carry.

The structure

What each slide is doing, so you can reuse the order even with different content.

Slide 1cover
The whole proposition and the raise on the first screen, because most readers stop here.
Slide 2metrics
Ten numbers on one screen, which is what a retail investor scrolls looking for.
Slide 3content
The gap in the category, in five steps a reader with no drinks knowledge can follow.
Slide 4checklist
The three products, in plain language, with what each one costs and who buys it.
Slide 5metrics
The revenue curve by half year, with the three numbers that qualify it beside it.
Slide 6metrics
The market, sourced, and narrowed to the segment we actually compete in.
Slide 7testimonial
Community proof, which carries more weight with a crowd investor than with a fund.
Slide 8intro
The founding story, which the platform data says drives more decisions than the numbers.
Slide 9investment
Where the money goes, itemised, because a crowd investor cannot ask a follow up question.
Slide 10content
The terms, written as the five questions a first time investor actually asks.
Slide 11pricing
The bonus share tiers, which are structural in a crowdfunding round and absent from a VC one.
Slide 12closing
One next step and the risk warning, which a regulated financial promotion has to carry.

What makes this deck work

The numbers arrive before the story

Slide two is ten figures with no commentary: revenue, growth, margin, stockists, subscribers, followers, the raise and the valuation. Roughly a third of people read a campaign page in full, so everything that decides it has to survive a scroll.

The terms are on a slide, not in a footnote

Share class, pre money, post money, tax relief, minimum ticket and the closing date, written as the five questions a first time investor actually asks. A venture deck can leave price to the negotiation. A public offer cannot.

Rewards are structural, not decoration

Three bonus share tiers at £250, £1,000 and £5,000, each capped and each stated plainly. Perks change how much a retail round raises, so they belong in the deck rather than in the small print.

Questions people ask

How is a crowdfunding deck different from an investor deck?

It is a public financial promotion. Every factual claim needs evidence the platform will check, the language has to be fair and not misleading, and it must work with no presenter, because competitors, customers and journalists all read it too.

How long should a crowdfunding deck be?

Twelve to twenty slides, which is longer than a venture deck. There is nobody in the room filling the gaps, so anything you would normally say out loud has to be written down.

Do perks and bonus shares really matter?

Yes. Platforms report that campaigns offering rewards raise materially more, and the tiers also shape the average cheque. Keep them simple, cap the top tier, and issue bonus shares at close rather than promising anything conditional.

What has to be sourced?

Every market size, growth rate and user number. Platforms ask for third party figures no more than two or three years old, and screenshots for anything from your own systems. Unevidenced claims get struck from the page before it goes live.

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