Freedom One Life is aiming to raise equity funding via crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to supplement the backing it has received from existing investors.
Those backers are: Murray Capital; Ian Marchant, the former chief executive of power giant SSE; and Stuart Macdonald, the founder and managing director of cyber security firm Seric, who all continue to support the business.
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Hide AdInnovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency, has also contributed more than £250,000 of grant funding.
Company founder Alex Papanikolaou, who has cerebral palsy and uses a powered wheelchair on a daily basis, was frustrated by constantly breaking down and being stranded by unreliable powerchairs. He decided to address the problem himself and founded the business in 2013.
The firm’s “next-generation” Series 5 model is the result of years of research and development and thousands of hours of testing.
Papanikolaou said: “In creating the Series 5, we have designed a powerchair that combines lived experience with industry leading design. Test drives in our powerchair leave huge smiles on users' faces.
“This fundraise will allow us to take the Series 5 to full commercial launch, including the manufacture of demo chairs for the well-established distributor market across the UK and Europe, as we seek to become a leader in a market that is expected to more than double in value to £9.2 billion globally by 2027.”
The firm has previously secured three funding rounds totalling more than £1.2 million.