UK cycling accessory business Purple Harry has achieved its crowd funding target with support from the Brownlee brothers. Purple Harry, a Derby based cycling brand, is now celebrating reaching its target of £75,000 worth of investment through the crowd funding initiative.
In its third year of trading, Purple Harry founders Richard Hargreaves and Dean Perry appealed for investment using the website CrowdCube, offering equity in the innovative bike cleaning & maintenance company in return for a crowd-funded cash injection. Having set themselves a target of £75,000 to reach by the end of December, the Purple Harry team reached their goal ahead of deadline, receiving over £83,000 worth of investment in total.
The final investors were Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, the Olympic gold and bronze medal winning triathletes. The brothers had become interested in Purple Harry after trialling the products during their bike training, and they liked them so much they decided to support the business directly by becoming shareholders.
The Brownlees’ investment capped a remarkable final two weeks in Purple Harry’s crowdfunding campaign, which saw a huge surge in interest and the final slug of required investment successfully raised. It was a strong month overall for Purple Harry’s ‘smooth pedalling’ community, with the brand also lending its support to the Spadgers 6 Day Night charity fundraiser in Manchester, donating products to riders and prize winners.
Company founder Dean Perry said “We are thrilled that the Crowd Cube funding pitch has been such a success, with Alistair and Jonny Brownlee involved, it just goes to show that Purple Harry has the ‘crowd’ behind it.”
“We can now look forward to developing the business and new innovative products to take to market. A very exciting 2014 is a head of us!’”
Prior to starting up Purple Harry, Perry and Hargreaves held senior positions in the logistics sector but spent much of their spare time cycling in the Derbyshire dales. Witnessing the boom in popularity of cycling and the vast increase in people taking up the sport to keep fit, race and commute, the two decided to enter the cycling industry after finding a solution to an age old problem.
They identified a gap in the market for a cleaning aid to reach the most inaccessible but crucial components of a bike, especially the rear cassette and drive train. After searching in vain for industrial grade dental floss the eureka moment came when Perry was helping his daughter on a school project using pipe cleaners, and realised that a modified version could be ideal.
Hargreaves and Perry began working with a pipe cleaner manufacturer in Yorkshire, UK. With the pipe smoking market in decline, this company was keen to explore new ventures and ‘Bike Floss’ was born.
The product began selling well, especially after a series of positive media reviews and recommendations, so Purple Harry began branching out with a complementary range of non-aerosol cleaning sprays and chain lubricants, plus another simple but unique creation – a microfibre Wash and Polish Mitt.
With eight products now on the market – all receiving strong reviews from the press – Purple Harry has grown from strength to strength. Partnering with Sweetspot (organisers of The Tour Series, Tour of Britain and a number of other cycling events) and Hot Chillee as the official product supplier, the company is also sponsoring the Starley Primal pro team, women’s team Mule Bar Girl-Sigma Sport, and the paratriathlete and Rio 2016 hopeful Phill Hogg.
In only three years since Purple Harry’s launch, the brand has come a long way; with the success of the crowd funding project and a little help from the Brownlee brothers, the future is purple for 2014 and beyond!
