“Golfboard” Makers Have Raised $1M to Ramp Up Production
Sol Boards, Inc., which makes the oversized electric skateboards designed to be used by golfers, says it has a “substantial backlog” of orders for the $6,000 devices that the capital will help to fill.
Sol Boards, Inc., a Bend, Ore. company with big-name backers that include surfing legend Laird Hamilton, has raised $1 million to ramp up production of “Golfboards,” the oversized electric skateboards designed to be used by golfers, the Portland (Ore.) Business Journal reported.
The funding was first disclosed in this regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1573591/000157359114000004/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml)
The Golfboard is the brainchild of Hamilton and Don Wildman, founder of Bally Total Fitness, who have homes in Malibu, Calif.. The two tinkered with prototype off-road skateboards for a few years before designing one that seemed commercially viable, the Business Journal reported. That led to the formal founding of Sol Boards in 2013; the company is now based in Bend, Ore., where President Jeff Dowell lives. Wildman’s son, John Wildman, serves as CEO.
Dowell said the company already has a “substantial backlog” or orders and the $1 million investment will be used to increase production of the $6,000 Golfboards, the Business Journalreported. For now, the company is mostly filling orders received from golf courses, and has limited ability to fill individual orders.
There are no plans to raise additional capital because the new funding should ramp up the company’s cash flow, Dowell said.
The company’s sales and marketing functions are based in Malibu, but Dowell told the Business Journal that a move to California is not being considered.
“It is my desire to build a company in Bend and stay here long-term,” he said.
Golfboard currently employs about a half-dozen people, the Business Journal reported.
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