Last week, creator of intelligent bike light ICON, See.Sense hit equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to raise £500,000 as it prepares to expand. Within a matter of days, the initiative secured over £400,000 thanks to 150 investors.
Founded in 2013 by husband and wife team, Philip and Irene McAleese, See.Sense is seeking to improve cycling safety, reduce theft and collect crowdsourced data to help create smart cities. To do this, the company has created the ICON, which reacts to environments, improves cyclist visibility and provides theft/crash alerts when paired with a smartphone. Other features include, rechargeable through USB, daylight visible, See & Be Seen, and water sealed.
The connected cycling tech startup previously raised £114,000 from over 1400 backers through two Kickstarter campaigns. It was also dubbed overall winner of the BT Infinity Labs SME Award for Connected Cities. Funds from the campaign will be used for expansion of See.Sense’s team, acceleration product development and business development related to its crowdsourced data. The company reported that it currently has no debt.
During a recent interview with The Irish News, See.Sense CEO, Philip McAleese stated:
“We have some hugely innovative new products in the pipeline, and we’ve some amazing opportunities opening up with cities who are interested in our crowdsourced data. To give fuel to the fire, we’re inviting our community – the people who use and love our products – to help us grow. To demonstrate the potential of our crowdsourced data, we have begun work with city of Milton Keynes on a full-scale trial. We are very excited about these opportunities and we hope that this will entice would be investors to, not only take See.Sense to its next stage of growth, but to join us and be part of that journey.”
Geoff Snelson, strategy director of Milton Keynes Council and supporter of the ICON crowdsource data, added:
“I see a lot of tech ideas but what has really impressed me about See.Sense is that they have thought through the customer experience and value to the cyclist. Together with that they have the potential to collect valuable data that can contribute to mobility projects in Milton Keynes as we progress to become one of the world’s leading smart cities.”
The campaign is set to close mid-August.
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