We are pleased to announce the close of our second Crowd-Sourced Funding (CSF) raise, securing just over $580,000 from 298 investors. Last week, after an action packed campaign, we officially closed our public investment offer on Birchal. This is a significant achievement in light of the challenging economic climate and remains a testament to the continued excitement and support of the Australian community for the Grong Grong Solar Farm project.
The purpose of the raise was to fund the remainder of construction costs including the electrical installation and commissioning of the solar farm, which is expected to be completed by early 2024.
Earlier this year the Grong Grong Solar Farm secured construction financing following some changes in the intended financing structure of the project. Namely these included the $700,000 shortfall in the Haystacks Solar Garden Loan and adverse forex movements which led to increases in key component prices. The construction financing allowed the project to continue moving steadily and is now due to be repaid late this year.
Running a CSF Campaign
While the second time is certainly always easier, CSF campaigns require months of planning and coordination with our project team and Birchal. Once again, it started with the collaboration of GoodchatTV on the production of our awesome campaign video which, if you haven’t had the chance, we recommend you check out below!
Our EOI campaign officially opened in mid-September and followed closely in the footsteps of our 2022 campaign, attracting a diverse audience across our Grong Grong Solar Farm community, Birchal and the wider Australia and international community’s.
A Few of our Achievements
While we did not quite meet our goal of $815,000, there are certainly many campaign achievements to be celebrated, including:
- 751 EOI submissions during our 3-week EOI campaign (surpassing out 2022 campaign)
- A 8.7% conversion rate from those who viewed our Birchal landing page (and video) to submitting an EOI – normally 5% is good, and 8% is excellent!
- We reached our $250,000 minimum in just 48 hours
- We raised our $580,000 in 16 days.
- Of the 298 total investors, 79 were current investors re-investing and 219 were new investors!
The 298 investors join our current investor community of 437 as owners and shareholders of Australia’s first crowd-equity funded and owned solar farm. We still hope that this investment model, demonstrated through the Grong Grong Solar Farm, will be the blueprint for plenty of future green crowd-sourced funding projects.
What comes next?
The onboarding of our investors is now being finalised. Construction continues on the Grong Grong Solar Farm with electrical installation and commissioning to come. Generation is expected to commence in early 2024. Considering the difficult economic conditions for many Australian’s, we are truly grateful for the support of both our investors and the wider community we have built over the last two years. There is still plenty of appetite for local and green investment such as the Grong Grong Solar Farm and we hope to continue supporting the growth and diversification of the renewables industry in Australia.