Brewer Maker Alpha Dominche Turns to the Crowd for $1 Million Seed Campaign

The Alpha Dominche Extraction Lab, which opened in January 2017. Photo by Paul Martinka, courtesy of AD.

High-end commercial and home coffee equipment maker Alpha Dominche is turning to the crowd in search of a $1 million seed investment. The Brooklyn-based company has launched an equity fundraising campaign through the Crowdfunder platform, which sources and funds early stage ventures through platform-verified investors.

Since launching yesterday, the campaign has pledged investments totaling $300,000 with a closing date of Aug. 31.

Originally based in Salt Lake City, where its products were formerly manufactured, Alpha Dominche made a huge splash in the specialty coffee world with the debut of its Steampunk coffee and/or tea brewer at the 2012 SCAA show in Portland.

The Alpha Dominche Flask. Alpha Dominche promotional photo.

Since then, the company’s major accomplishments have included moving its headquarters to Brooklyn, developing a global distribution network, opening an AD-gear-filled cafe called the Extraction Lab in Brooklyn, partnering with Italian espresso machine maker Dalla Corte for U.S. distribution

, and, most recently, partnering with Danish specialty roaster La Cabra in the Extraction Lab.

Through that time — despite a 2014 split from Steampunk inventor Khristian Bombeck, who went on to found Saint Anthony Industries — the company has made numerous mechanical and tech upgrades to the original Steampunk brewer. AD has also introduced two new core products, a visually striking batch brewer called The Sight that has yet to become commercially available, and its most recent product, and a stylish coffee or tea brewer called The Flask.

In its crowd investment campaign, which predicts sustained growth in the high-end specialty coffee industry for both the retail and home segments, the company says the $1 million would be used for working capital and further product development.