Nottingham outdoor equipment brand raises £1.5m in 44 minutes

Nottingham-based outdoor brand Alpkit, whose range includes gear to run, hike, climb, camp, swim and bike, has raised £1.5m on crowdfunding platform CrowdCube.

The firm hit its initial target of £750,000 in just eight minutes and doubled that after 44 minutes for them to reach its cap of £1.5million. At its peak, there were five people investing every second.

This move follows record sales over the last 12 weeks, where like-for-like sales were up 50% to £2.3m

CEO and Co-Founder, David Hanney, said: “This is an exciting time for Alpkit and we’ve been completely overwhelmed by the support from our customers. For a long time, they’ve been asking us whether it would be possible to invest in Alpkit and we’ve always wanted to extend our ownership and deepen our relationship with our customers. So when we looked to add financial strength to our growth plans, we wanted to involve them ahead of other financial institutions. The response has been incredible and we know we wouldn’t be in this position today without their loyal support.”

The funds raised will be invested in the opening of two new stores a year from 2021, international growth through easier translation, payment and delivery and a programme to achieve world-class sustainability assessment using the BCorp framework by 2022.