Cappoquin craft gin maker Blackwater Distillery has raised €160,000 from six investors, according to a recent CRO filing.

The venture, initiated in 2014, is led by Peter Mulryan (55), who together with director Caroline Senior owned 51% of the equity prior to the funding round. The other shareholders listed in the 2015 annual return are Kieran Curtin (15%), Barry Donnellan (15%), Niamh Mulryan (10%), Paul and Nora Mulryan (6%) and Judy Woodworth (3%).

The investors in the funding round, effected last December, are Judy Woodworth (€10,000), Paul Mulryan (€30,000), Karin Duffner (€10,000), Anne Woodworth (€20,000), Martin O’Donnell (€40,000) and Victor Treacy (€50,000).

Blackwater’s Boyle’s Gin was named Best Irish Gin at the Irish Whiskey Awards in 2016, and another brand was a gold medal winner in the 2015 awards. The company booked a net profit of €9,000 in 2015, when year-end debtors amounted to €12,000 and net worth was €18,000 on the back of startup capital of €49,000.

According to the company’s website: “We’re not a faceless conglomerate; we are real people who have invested time, money and not a little sweat into getting this business off the ground. In the morning we switch on the lights, open the post and fire up the stills. Everything here is done by hand so we make our whiskies and gins in small batches the old fashioned way – no scrimping, no cheating, no colours, no flavourings.

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“Our gin then was designed from top to bottom using only the botanicals imported into Ireland by White’s of Waterford during the 19th century. In the dusty archives we found a treasure trove of botanicals once popular, but now overlooked. We distilled each and every one of these spices; some weren’t so great but two were spectacular and they lie at the heart of Blackwater No.5 Gin.”