Dealflow | March 1, 2017

Scottish wheelchair entrepreneur raises funds to bring Freedom One to market

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Scottish wheelchair entrepreneur Alex Papanikolaou has raised more than a million dollars to bring his Freedom One wheelchair to market.

Papanikolaou’s wheelchair couldn’t keep up with his active lifestyle so he invented the Freedom One, a lighter wheelchair with bigger tires and a longer-lasting battery.

With £350,000 ($440,000) in grant funding, he built a prototype and has covered more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) on the streets of Glasgow.

Papanikolaou has raised £1.2 million ($1.5 million) from private equity and angel investors to complete R&D and bring the chair to market.

Photo credit: Freedom One Life