Handmade biscuits company Biscuiteers is launching a crowdfunding campaign with Crowdcube in a bid to achieve accelerated growth.

Funds raised will be used to invest in international expansion, manufacturing improvements and marketing, the company said in a statement. The company aims to raise £550,000 via the crowdfunding campaign.

Launched in 2007, the company claims to have been the first in the UK to offer collections of luxurious hand-iced biscuits to send as gifts. With its focus online, the company has since been able to scale quickly to around £3 million in annual sales and now boasts over a million followers across social networks, with 100,000 customers in 99 countries.

As well as online sales direct to customers, the company’s products are stocked by retailers John Lewis, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason. Online sales account for 53% of turnover and the company aims to focus on direct sales for future growth.

It also has two biscuit icing cafés in Notting Hill and Battersea and has a growing corporate business, making bespoke branded biscuits for the likes of Cartier, Burberry, Mulberry and Net-a-Porter.

Company founder and managing director Harriet Hastings said: “We are fundraising now because we believe this is the right time to invest for accelerated growth into a proven model. Our aim was to disrupt the premium gifting sector and we believe that biscuits are a unique and more personalised alternative to flowers and chocolates.

“Our customers are very much at the heart of our business and we wanted to give them a chance to be part of our biscuit journey.”