A North Staffordshire bike manufacturer has extended its crowdfunding campaign – after hitting its £300,000 target with weeks to spare.
REAP Bikes, which is based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, has reached its initial fundraising target three weeks early after attracting investment from more than 180 contributors.
Now the company – which is being backed by Olympic cycling legend Sir Jason Kenny – has released additional equity in the business to enable more people to invest.
The additional cash will be used to accelerate the firm's expansion plans which will start in the UK before moving internationally across Europe and beyond.
The plans will focus on three main areas of the business covering research and development, sales and marketing and customer experience.
Martin Meir, managing director of REAP Bikes, said: "As soon as riders get their hands on a bike – they get it. We therefore wanted to create an experience that we can take on the road, allowing riders to fully understand what REAP's British engineering has brought to cycling.
"Our vision is to initially take our REAP experience to major cities across the UK – but then expand this internationally.
"Alongside the greatest Olympic cyclist ever, Sir Jason Kenny, we have some of the UK’s best minds in engineering making a powerful team to take REAP from a one of the world’s fastest prototypes, to a world leading cycling company."
Martin added: "Although we are delighted to have reached the £300,000 milestone, with more investment we can accelerate the implementation of our plans."
REAP is continuing to invite investment through its Crowdcube campaign until the closing date on June 24.
As of June 10, the crowdfunding campaign stood at almost £330,000 from 198 investors.
