AN Aberdeen Fast Food outlet, Aberdam, has teamed up with CD Corp to launch a rewards-based NFT crowdfunding campaign to raise crucial funds to support its UK-wide growth.Â
The campaign – aptly named “Aberfam” – is thought to be the first of its kind to be adopted by an SME in the UK. Investors will enjoy a range of year-long rewards, as well as owning a non-fungible token (NFT) containing a unique digital character commissioned exclusively to mark the birth of the company’s food chain.
It is hoped the campaign will generate enough funds to allow the company to fast-track its growth plans. Specialising in loaded Dutch fries and smashed burgers, the Aberdeen-based eatery has enjoyed exponential growth since its inception in 2021. After turning over £600k in its first year of trading, Aberdam is now on track to hit sales figures of over £1.3m in its second year. The company, which employs 21 staff, will launch its second outlet in Glasgow next month (October 2022) before rolling out a further five units across Scotland over the next 12 months.
The Aberfam community was the brainchild of Aberdam Director, Michael Robertson, and CD Corp co-founder, Ryan Aitken. The duo were keen to use emerging Web3 technology to offer a unique proposition to investors, which is thought to offer more value than traditional crowdfunding campaigns. By combining an Aberdam-developed digital art collectable with a generous 12-month rewards package, investors are offered a unique way to invest. Like traditional crowdfunding campaigns, where investors look for the value of their shares to increase, it is hoped the founding NFTs accrue value and become collectables, as the Aberdam brand expands across the UK.
Along with Aberdam business partner, Dave Griffiths, and CD Corp partners, Joseph McGraw and Murdo McCandlish, the team will launch the crowdfunding campaign next week (Friday 30th September 2022). The project hopes to raise £408,000 to accelerate the company’s 12-month growth plans.
Michael commented: “We’re really excited about our NFT crowdfunding campaign. We already have a fantastic community of supporters behind us and over 22,000 followers on social media, to whom we’re very grateful. Many of them have already shown an interest in the company and were looking for a way to invest or get involved. As well as raising funds, the campaign will create a strong community, which will bring with it an opportunity to influence Aberdams’ decision making – we aim to poll the community regularly for guidance on a number of areas. I think this will be the first of many NFT-crowdfunding campaigns for SMEs in the UK; although large multi-national corporations like Starbucks, with their Odyssey NFT rewards programme, will hasten mass adoption, I believe small businesses stand to benefit the most as they look to scale, I also think this will become an industry standard as more and more businesses dip their toes into the web3 world”.Â
Investor Options
Aberdam is offering investment options across four tiers. Each package provides scaled rewards and discounts and offers varying levels of access to Aberdam’s online community, known as “Aberfam”. There are 820 founder memberships available, and each one comes with an official Aberdam-issued digital asset (NFT). There are also 1000 tier 4 packages, each offering members a generic Aberfam ID and 20% off at Aberdam for 12 months. The fourth tier does not include an NFT.
Technology
An NFT is a record of ownership of a digital or physical asset on a blockchain. For this project, Aberdam uses NFTs to authenticate (tier 1-3) investors’ memberships in the community via their Aberfam IDs. Each Aberfam ID contains bespoke art designed specifically for this project by three Aberdeen artists, Dfunkt Robot, Plague Fisher, and Reckless. Investors will receive their Aberfam ID via the Phantom Wallet App, available on all major app stores, with no cryptocurrencies involved. Each member will be issued a metal ID card that links directly to their NFT.
Ryan Aiken from CD Corp commented: “I will be forever grateful to the guys at Aberdam for trusting us to deliver on a project of this size, this is our first outside of the whisky industry, and we are confident it will be a success. What we’ve created with Michael and Dave provides a genuine community-focused alternative for new start-ups looking to scale. I think the team of six we had working on this project for the last few months have delivered big, so now I’m ready to enjoy the Aberfam journey with them over the next 12 months.”
Aberdam’s NFT crowdfund campaign will run until the fundraising target is met. For more information on Aberdam’s Crowdfunding campaign, visit https://aberfam.community.
