Bullet proof shield raises more than £330,000 through crowdfunding site
A NETPark based firm that has designed a bulletproof shield to protect children at school has successfully raised more than £330,000 with a crowdfunding campaign.
Graphene Composites took to Crowdcube with the hope of raising £300,000 to continue development of its GC Shield product.
The bulletproof shield is capable of stopping shots fired from handguns, as well has high calibre rounds fired from a Nato sniper rifle and the AR-15 assault rifle.
The GC Shield has also been designed to fit inside a child’s school bag and can be clipped to other shields to create a larger protective barrier.
Graphene Composites took to Crowdcube last month with the aim of raising £300,000 to further develop its technology as well as expand into the US, which will be its main market.
Initial price points put forward by the company suggest that it would sell a pack of 10 shields for around $16,000 (£12,150). It could also charge up to $1m (£759,000) for a full protection range including wall packs in classrooms and offices, and shield curtains at entrances to buildings and school cafeterias and gyms.
With nine days left of its crowdfunding campaign the NETPark headquartered firm has already raised £337,950, and is now overfunding. Those wishing to invest in the company can continue to do so, and can own equity in the company for as little as £10.
Sandy Chen, CEO of Graphene Composites, said: “We’re obviously delighted that we’re now overfunding on Crowdcube – and it’s tremendously heartening to get all this support to develop and commercialise our GC Shield active shooter protection technologies, our Lightning Harvester renewable power, and other applications of our graphene/aerogel composite nano-technology.”
As well as developing the GC Shield, the company plans to experiment with its graphene technology to develop its Lightning Harvester, which aims to harness electricity in storms and feed it into the National Grid.
The technology would work by attaching a long graphene wire to a weather balloon that would be realised into the cloud. The electricity generated by the storm is then fed through the line into the UK’s power network.
The energy from a typical thunder storm is estimated to be enough to power 2% of the UK’s energy needs for a year.
Graphene Composites is also hoping to raise $6m of investment through a private funding round in the US.
News source: The Chronicle
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