BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Having launched to Crowdcube to fund a made in Britain collection, as well as expansion of the Hoy Vulpine label, Vulpine has already surpassed its £500,000 funding goal.
With 24 days of the 29 remaining, the firm raised £234,410 on Thursday 22nd October alone. Having prviously turned down private equity investment, founder Nick Hussey has turned to existing Vulpine customers, favouring allowing them to be part of the "Vulpine Story".
As of today [Friday 23rd October], there have been nearly 300 investors in the British company, ranging from £10 to £50,000.
Nick Hussey, founder of Vulpine, said: “It is pretty amazing to do it all in 5 days, the support has blown me away. Last week, I was absolutely bricking it because we’ve never done this before – Crowd funding is still relatively new and it’s definitely new to us. But we put absolutely everything into it and we’re so grateful that people have shared our passion and vision in investing.”
He added: “We have a really engaged audience of customers and people both inside and outside of cycling really care about the brand and the story. We’ve had loads of lovely messages off people who have wanted to be part of Vulpine before and now there’s been a structure and opportunity to do it. We’re in such a good position now, not just because of the funding but because of the skills, contacts and offers of help and expertise that have come from investors.”
The company will now go into a period of Overfunding, continuing to provide investors the opportunity to get involved over and above the £500,000 target for proportionally the same equity stake. The Crowdcube is found here.
Hussey continued: “We are going to see how far we can go while agreeing a plan internally for greater funding. What we’re not going to do is rush into spending the money. In the clothing business, having cash gives confidence in the company from suppliers and de-risks the company, giving more flexibility with cash in the bank.
“I think it’s really interesting what this says about cycling. We’ve found cycling is a massive buzzword in the financial sector. I continue to find it amazing how cycling continues to grow – I’ve been a cyclist across the last four decades. Before, it was weird, but now people say ‘Why don’t we go for a ride?’ when they want to do business.”
