Scottish rugby stars among investors backing wellness brand with global aspirations

A fast-growing wellness brand has global aspirations after raising some £1.3 million in just five hours through a celebrity-backed crowdfunding campaign.

Puresport is now live to the public and has secured backing from more than 300 investors including Scottish rugby internationals Jonny Gray, Greig Laidlaw and Finn Russell, who have invested a combined total of more than £80,000, the firm said.

The investment will allow the £12m-valued firm to press ahead with plans to expand into the US and Australian e-commerce markets in the coming months, having launched in New Zealand - the native country of company founder and ex-rugby pro Grayson Hart - earlier this week.

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To celebrate the milestone, the brand launched a two-day pop-up store on London’s famous Oxford Street, giving fitness fanatics the chance to sample its range of supplements.

Hart, Puresport’s chief executive, said the investment provided the launchpad for the firm’s ambitions to become a global wellness brand.

“To raise £1m through crowdfunding is massive, to do so in just a few hours is mind blowing,” he said. “The community we have built around Puresport truly trusts and believes in what we produce and what we stand for, and we are all stoked to have them along for the ride as investors now too.

“What began as a means of providing a safe and natural pain management alternative has mushroomed into a holistic wellness movement that is now established in mainstream markets and we’re in the perfect position to feed that appetite.

“It’s no secret that we want to be sold in major stores like Selfridges and Harrods, and this investment will help us on our road to achieving it. We are also ready to replicate the success we’ve enjoyed in e-commerce in the UK overseas - starting with the US, Australia, and New Zealand where the audience is ready and target growth potential huge.”

Grayson Hart at the Puresport pop-up store on London's Oxford Street.Grayson Hart at the Puresport pop-up store on London's Oxford Street.
Grayson Hart at the Puresport pop-up store on London's Oxford Street.

The venture was initially a side hustle for former scrum-half Hart, who represented New Zealand U20s, Scotland in 7s and full internationals, and the Barbarians during a successful professional rugby career.

The wellness entrepreneur looked to natural products after realising the negative effects of relying on opioid-based painkillers to cope with the rigours of professional rugby.

Puresport is set to ramp up its focus on the mainstream UK retail market just a few months after it became one of the first CBD producers to gain approval for legal sale in the country, following the introduction of stringent Food Standards Agency regulations.

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The start-up has grown quickly by creating an expanding community around the brand, already attracting almost 50,000 followers across social media. The model has been driven by collaborations with similar-minded fitness and wellness brands.

Hart added: “If you’d told me in 2018 when this all started that we’d be in a position to raise more than £1m in under a day just four years later I’d have laughed at you, but the people involved in Puresport and the progress we’ve made since has filled me with the belief Puresport can become as big as we want it to.”

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