Proposed West Hartford brewery-cafe on crowdfunding home stretch

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    West Hartford, CT (Hartford Business Journal) — A craft brewery and cafe envisioned for West Hartford has raised nearly $56,000 through equity crowdfunding, but the venture needs to net nearly $20,000 more over the next few weeks or it risks losing some of the commitments.

WeHa Brewing & Roasting Co., a beer brewer and coffee roaster founded by Cody McCormack, is appealing to investors to help it reach its target of $75,000, which is slated to be used for build-out of the facility and to purchase equipment.

WeHa has said it hopes to open the combined brewery and cafe by the end of this year, though a location has not yet been announced. The venture began raising crowdfunding investments in July, in the form of revenue sharing notes with a maximum possible return on investment of 50%.

If the company does not hit its $75,000 mark by Oct. 7, and chooses to extend the deadline, investors would have to reaffirm their commitments, or their money would be returned, under the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s equity crowdfunding rules.

McCormack, who works as a certified public accountant and early this year launched WeHa Roasting Co., has also secured $275,000 in funding from other sources.

He is working with co-founder Robbie Wendeborn, who was previously head brewer at a New York craft brewery.

Equity crowdfunding began in 2016, and has since been used by more than 1,700 U.S. companies to raise a total of $438 million, according to recent data from Crowdfund Capital Advisors LLC.

Connecticut crowdfunding activity has been relatively modest so far, though it continues to accelerate. A recently launched solar energy venture based in Old Saybrook called Energea could add significantly to Connecticut’s totals.

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