Portland e-bike maker Vvolt has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign.
CEO Kyle Ranson said that the company, valued at about $13 million, is still seeking institutional investors alongside equity investors, but that many institutional investors post-pandemic are looking for companies that have been operational longer than the two years Vvolt has.
Equity investing will help the company to continue operating for a year or two while it courts institutional investors but also helps the company’s overall goals, Ranson said.
“This idea of making it accessible to everybody is in line with our brand values, and part of what our brand value is about is delivering a high-quality product at a very accessible price,” Ranson said. “So we said, ‘We think we have an amazing value proposition, let's get it out to our collective customer bases, talk about what we're doing and actually give some equity in the business.’”
Wednesday morning, Vvolt's page on the crowdfunding platform StartEngine said the company had only raised about $6,000 in its first day, but Ranson said that number is actually closer to $100,000.
Some U.K.-based investors are having problems with the campaign’s website, Ranson said, and the correct investment numbers should be reflected by next week.
“The site is really tailored to the U.S. market, so it will ask for things like Social Security numbers and things like that if you're investing over a certain level,” Ranson said. “And the verification tools are all U.S.-based, so for these U.K. investors, this system just kept on crashing on them.”
Despite the first day stressors, Ranson is optimistic that Vvolt will be able to reach its goal before the end of the three months the crowdfunding campaign will be open.
Vvolt last year received a $7,500 grant that it said it put toward improving diversity in job postings and hiring.
The company will put the money raised from this campaign toward demand creation, marketing and new products, Ranson said, including a new three-wheeled device inspired by one customer's needs.
“Sarah suffers from MS, and she was basically looking out there and saying ‘There's nothing out there in the market that meets my needs. I do not want one of these huge mobility scooters that I can't get around on and I can't move by myself,’” Ranson said, noting that the funding will help Vvolt get past the first rounds of prototyping for the product.
The overall goal of the company is to not just create e-bikes, Ranson said, but to expand to all kinds of products that offer alternative transportation to a gas-powered car. Ranson prefers, for that reason, not to call Vvolt an e-bike company, but an e-micro mobility one.
"I kind of joke that our grandchildren are going to look at gas cars in museums and go, ‘Hold on a second, you used to take a highly flammable fluid, put it in a tank behind you, sit on it, then pipe it through a pipe to the front, squirt it into a chamber, throw a spark in it, which caused it to explode, which rotated something which moved you forward? Were you guys nuts?'" Ranson said.
Minimum investment for the equity crowdfunding campaign is $226, and those interested have until the end of January to invest.
