Three international investors for pet food provider Just Russel

Challenge:
The young founders behind Just Russell, Victor and Louis Mortreu, Renaat Waeles and Cyriel Van Steen, have ambitious growth plans. In the coming period, they want to launch Just Russell in even more European countries. Before that, they were looking forsmart money: not only investors who were able to offer enough capital, but, above all, had the right knowledge and know-how to make the expansion a success.
Approach:
We decided to first review Just Russell's financial plans in order to make the right growth forecasts. We also made sure that the business plans were further professionalized. We then tested the founders' ambitions with international investors.
In addition, the founders drew up a wishlist of potential investors, which we then approached. The founders knew well what kind of investors they wanted to attract and set the bar high!
Result:
With investors Thomas Van Overbeke, Manuel Müller and Dr. Dennis Schmoltzi on board, Just Russell's European expansion already seems within reach. The three have extensive experience in bringing local D2C brands to the international market. This is how Van Overbeke founded Outspot op, a Belgian Groupon competitor, which, thanks to a data-driven approach and successful buy-and-build strategy, is already active in ten European countries.
Müller & Schmoltzi are no strangers to the world either: They are founders of the German mattress brand Emma Sleep, which is now the European market leader in its industry. Like Just Russell, Emma Sleep initially focused on data-driven improvement of products that you can only buy online.
“The Harbour is very flexible: no one size fits all, but a personal approach based on the needs of the entrepreneur!”



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