Photo courtesy of wheresthecat.com
Say it ain’t so. Several months ago we came across a story about a crowd-funding campaign launched by business partners in San Francisco to raise money for the opening of a cat café in the upscale neighborhood of Hayes Valley. The co-founders, who set out to raise a total of $50,000, have brought in over $60,000 during the 30-day campaign but it turns out that won’t be enough.
High rent, a guaranteed deposit, and additional build-out costs to meet health department code have forced the co-owners of KitTea to seek an additional $100,000 from investors before they can sign a lease and begin construction. The company, which had been going back and forth on lease negotiations for nearly five months, hope to raise additional capital from angel investors in exchange for equity.
Fortunately for those in the Bay Area they need their cat café fix, Oakland’s Cat Town Café is expected to open this September. The business, which signed a lease for a space on Broadway in July, plans to convert the 2,200-square-foot space into a “coffee-bar-meets-cat-playground, where all of the shelter kitties will be available for adoption.” If Cat Town Café opens ahead of KitTea, which it looks as if it will, it will be the first full-fledged car café in America according to sfist.com.
