RAYGUN has raised $582,000 in equity financing to accelerate its expansion into other Midwestern cities.
Mike Draper, founder
“We’ve begun to look at phase 3 of expansion for the company, going into other cities and growing a little bit faster,” said Draper. “Over the last year or so, we kind of examined our options for the best way to go about that.”
The raised money will help speed up RAYGUN’s expansion, allowing them to open up new stores throughout the Midwest. RAYGUN plans to open stores in two new locations by the end of 2019, Draper told Clay & Milk.
“We’ve been opening one store every 18 months or so and would just like to be moving a bit faster,” Draper said. “Our wheelhouse is the Midwest. Any city in the Midwest that could possibly sustain our store, it’s on our list.”
The company currently has stores in four locations—Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Kansas City.
“The other reason to raise money was to spend some time to focus on what the next five years are going to look like,” Draper said. “We kind of explained to people as we were raising money that we’re not pivoting to anything new. We want to take what has been going well the last several years and just do more of that.”