London restaurant MEATliquor is in talks with private equity firms to raise £7 million as it plans to expand across the UK and internationally.
The burger chain, which opened its first restaurant in Marylebone in 2011 and already has branches in Brighton and Leeds, launched a fundraising drive last Friday that gives it a value of around £20 million.
MEATliquor hopes to open at least six new sites by 2017, with Bristol, Glasgow and Islington planned for next year.
The business is also in talks to bring the chain to Dublin and co-founder Scott Collins said he has been approached about bringing MEATliquor to the Middle East and Asia.
“It’s been three years and we’ve been fortunate enough for [the growth] to be funded by cashflow. We’re ready to speed up our roll-out.”
The chain, which started life as a London street-food van, was founded by Yianni Papoutsis and Collins, both of whom featured on the Evening Standard’s 1000 Influential list in 2012. The restaurant was one of the pioneers of the recent wave of burger restaurants in the capital.
The fundraising is the first time MEATliquor has opened up to outside investors and Collins said the business has been “harangued by interested parties”. He added: “We’ve spoken to a lot of private equity companies so far.”
