Glasgow firm behind 'next generation' wheelchair embarks on fresh fundraise

A Glasgow-based powered wheelchair specialist is looking to raise fresh capital as it takes its advanced design to market.

Freedom One Life, the Glasgow-based specialist in the design and production of advanced powered wheelchairs, is seeking fresh capital in order to take its next-generation Series 5 model to market.

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.

Innovate 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.

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