Welcome to Back or Bolt, a newsletter highlighting what is happening in the world of early-stage investing/crowdfunding. I’ll provide a curated list of what’s new in the crowdfunding space around the world and one deep dive into a company of interest, then it is up to you whether to BACK OR BOLT!
The DEEP DIVE - Deadly Dozen
Hyrox proved that functional fitness racing can become a global category. Deadly Dozen wants to be the version any gym can host - no specialist rig required. £100,000 raised in the first 30 minutes, 237 owners and counting, but there’s not a lot disclosed, and a whole lot of trust required to back this brand.
Background Context
Hyrox went from a niche German concept to a worldwide fitness phenomenon in a handful of years - eight stations, a standardised format, and a community that has scaled into a genuine global business. The catch is that Hyrox requires licensed venues and specialist rig equipment, which limits which gyms can actually host an event.
Deadly Dozen's pitch is built directly against that constraint. The format uses kettlebells and dumbbells - equipment almost any gym already owns - which removes the biggest barrier to a gym hosting a race. If that lower-friction model works, it could expand faster than a rig-dependent competitor. The company already claims operations in 20+ countries, 110+ affiliate gyms, and over 100,000 Instagram followers, with "UK" and "World" championship leaderboards live online.
This is a single-director company raising at a £5M pre-money valuation, founded and run by Jason Curtis. It launched on Crowdcube, raised £100,000 in the first 30 minutes, and has now taken in £258,485 from 316 investors as of the data available.
The Good ✅
The format genuinely removes a real barrier. Hyrox-style racing requires specialist rigs and licensed venues; Deadly Dozen's reliance on standard kettlebells and dumbbells means any gym can plausibly host a race with no special equipment investment. If the category keeps growing, a lower-friction franchise model is a structural advantage, not just a marketing line.
The community traction looks real on social proof terms. 100,000+ Instagram followers, 110+ affiliate gyms, and a presence in 20+ countries is a meaningful organic footprint for a company at this stage, and it suggests the format has resonated with gyms and athletes independently of paid acquisition.
The crowdfunding momentum has been genuinely strong. £100,000 in the first 30 minutes and 237 owners within days is one of the faster starts in this newsletter's coverage, and points to an engaged existing community willing to back the brand financially, not just follow it.
The revenue model has multiple potential lines - UK track race ticket sales, franchise royalties, affiliate gym subscriptions, and an "envisioned" mobile app - which at least gives the business several ways to monetise if any one channel underperforms.
The category itself has a proven growth precedent. Hyrox is the existence proof that functional fitness racing can scale globally and attract serious commercial interest. Deadly Dozen doesn't need to invent demand for the category - it needs to capture a share of demand that's already been validated by a competitor.
The Bad 🚩
There is no disclosed revenue or profit figure anywhere in the campaign materials provided. Every headline metric is a social or operational proof point (followers, countries, affiliate gyms) rather than a financial one. For a £5M pre-money valuation, the absence of a single revenue number is a significant gap, and it's worth getting the full SKI financials before treating the social metrics as a substitute for traction.
The company is carrying genuinely expensive debt. An outstanding IWOCA loan is structured with monthly repayments that work out to an effective annual interest rate above 54% - this isn't a rounding error, it's disclosed explicitly in the company's own filing. There's already a live investor discussion thread on the campaign titled "Debt at 54% interest," which tells you this has not gone unnoticed by the existing investor community.
It's a single-director company, with all the governance concentration risk that implies. The filing acknowledges this directly and notes a board observer exists but cannot vote on resolutions - meaning no one with a vote is formally checking the founder's decisions.
EIS relief is still pending, not confirmed. Investors are committing capital now on the expectation of tax relief that has not yet been secured, which adds a layer of uncertainty to the net cost of investing.
Two of the four monetisation pillars are unproven. The mobile app is explicitly described as "envisioned" rather than built, and franchise royalty income depends on the international expansion strategy working as planned across jurisdictions with different legal, health and safety, and IP enforcement regimes - a genuinely complex undertaking for a company this size to manage internationally.
The £5M pre-money valuation is hard to benchmark without revenue. Compare this to Birmingham Brewing Company or Folc, where you can at least set the valuation against turnover - here there's nothing to anchor the number against beyond growth narrative and social reach.
Back or Bolt?
⚡ This is a genuinely interesting category bet wrapped around a financially opaque business, and the two pull in opposite directions.
The category logic is sound. Hyrox has shown the commercial ceiling for functional fitness racing is high, and a lower-friction, any-gym-can-host model is a sensible way to compete for share of that growth rather than trying to out-spend an established player on infrastructure. The community traction - followers, affiliate gyms, country count, and a fast-filling raise - suggests the brand has found genuine product-market fit at the grassroots level.
But the financial picture, as disclosed, doesn't give you much to underwrite the £5M number against. No revenue figure, a single director with no formal check on decision-making, EIS relief not yet secured, and - most strikingly - debt priced at an effective 54% annual rate. That last point alone would give most lenders pause about the company's near-term cash position, and it's the kind of detail that should sit at the top of any investor's due diligence list, not buried in a filing footnote.
The community has clearly noticed some of this already, given the discussion thread asking about it directly - which is a good sign for transparency norms on the platform, but doesn't resolve the underlying concern.
My verdict: a bolt for now. The category thesis is genuinely compelling and worth watching, but investing meaningful capital into a single-director business with no disclosed revenue, unconfirmed tax relief, and debt priced at over 50% interest is a lot of risk stacked on top of a story that is currently sustained by social proof rather than financial proof. If Deadly Dozen publishes clear revenue figures and addresses the IWOCA facility, the calculus could change quickly - this is exactly the kind of company worth revisiting in three to six months (this is my personal view and not investment advice).
(This is my personal view and not investment advice).
The Round Up 🌏
These are also on my radar this week. If you’d like me to analyse any of these in a future Deep Dive, be sure to let me know.
United Kingdom/Europe 🇬🇧 🇪🇺
Folc - Tonbridge, UK | Food & Beverage / Wine | England's most decorated rosé producer, challenging Provence and Champagne via a capital-light négociant model | 100,000+ bottles sold, 125% YoY growth, DTC revenue +340% H1 FY25/26, stocked at Fortnum & Mason and Ocado, Gold Medal at Global Sparkling Masters | £4.2M pre-money valuation | £18.95 per share | EIS eligible
IYU - Paris, France | FinTech / Remittances | ACPR-licensed cross-border payments platform connecting European diaspora communities to banks in Africa, Asia and South America | €1.25M revenue year 1, +34.5% growth YTD 2026, 45,000+ active users, 12 African countries covered, EU passporting across 27 countries | €15M pre-money valuation | €30 per share
Lireka - Grenoble, France | E-commerce / Retail | International online bookstore offering free worldwide delivery on ~2 million French and English titles, founded by ex-Amazon employees | €14.4M total revenue, +42% website growth in 2025, 100,000+ customers, 4.8/5 Trustpilot rating, owns Librairie Arthaud bookstore | €9M pre-money valuation | €2.55 per share | IR-PME eligible
Carbon Neutral Fuels - UK | CleanTech / Aviation | Developing eSAF (electro-sustainable aviation fuel) synthesised from electricity, water and CO₂, targeting >95% lifecycle emissions reduction | £11.3M+ raised to date including £7.3M in UK Department for Transport grants, Project Starling in advanced design (construction target 2028), partnerships with Honeywell UOP and Johnson Matthey | Convertible (ASA) | EIS eligible
Permia Sensing - London, UK | AgriTech / Deep Tech | Imperial College spinout using AI and patent-pending bioacoustic sensors to monitor tree health across coconut, date-palm and palm oil plantations | Winner of 2026 UAE FoodTech Challenge ($500k award), £800k+ raised, £660k non-dilutive grants, customers include UNIDO and Horana Plantations | £4.84M pre-money valuation | £1.62 per share | EIS eligible
United States 🇺🇸
San Diego Tempeh - Escondido, CA, USA | Food & Beverage / Fermented Foods | Bootstrapped tempeh and fermented foods producer (aminos, kraut) expanding from farmers markets into Erewhon and 200+ premium accounts | $1M+ lifetime revenue, $315k in 2025, profitable for the prior 3 months, $2M revenue target by 2030 | Hybrid SAFE + revenue share | Min. $100
Australia/New Zealand 🇦🇺 🇳🇿
Volt Solar Tile - Melbourne, Australia | CleanTech / Energy | Vertically integrated solar company combining a patented building-integrated solar roof tile with a sub-5MW battery storage infrastructure development arm | DTC pivot drove +170% revenue and +256% gross profit per project, first infrastructure DSA executed (~$480k dev fee, ~$1.6M construction revenue), Good Design Award Gold 2024, MOUs for 5 further projects | A$16.5M pre-money valuation | A$1.00 per share | Min. A$25,000 (wholesale/sophisticated investors only)
The Scorecard:
Backs: 3 (+1 this week) - Bolts: 9
The Fund:
That’s all for now, gotta bolt and get back to it! ⚡
DISCLAIMER - This newsletter is not financial advice, and should not be used as such. It is for information purposes only. Every investment has risks and you should do your own due diligence or discuss with a financial advisor before investing. Early-stage investing is higher risk and you may lose everything you put in. It is also highly illiquid, meaning your investment is not easily accessible if you need the funds at short notice.