Dispute sends iCapsulate into administration

Coffee pod manufacturer iCapsulate is in voluntary administration, less than two years after receiving a $2.5m investment offer in the biggest ever deal seen on TV show Shark Tank.

Based in Blacktown, NSW, the company has the capacity to make two million capsules a day, and has a daily roasting capacity of ten tonnes.

According to the administrator Rodgers Reidy iCapsulate is solvent, with the VA coming as a result of a dispute between shareholders and directors. The administrator is looking for offers for the business as a going concern, both external and internal.

The company has been mired in controversy since the Shark Tank appearance, with rival operators rasing major questions over claims made by founder Kane Bodian on the show that he had contracts with many leading coffee operators in Australia and New Zealand.

Andrew Banks, the Shark Tank investor then withdrew his offer – which would have given him a 22.5 per cent stake in the company – after a year of due diligence, with Banks pointing to what he said were inaccuracies over the biodegradable claims made for the capsules, while Bodian remained adamant that the environmental credentials were certified.

When he was on the Shark Tank Bodian said sales for 2016 were at $4m. According to Banks revenues at iCapsulate were approaching $15m when he withdrew, and heading for $21m next year.