The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN footcare provider, which has raised more than double its minimum crowdfunding target, yesterday used the proceeds to open the “hub” for its Bahamas and Caribbean expansion.

Dr Daniel Johnson, former minister for youth, sports and culture, said the new office for his Foot Care RX business will provide the platform for further growth. “We’ve been up and running for a year, and we went to ArawakX to really to finance an expansion. We’re not raising money to do what we do. We already do it,” he said of the fund-raising conducted via the crowdfunding platform.

The “necessary” expansion will allow Foot Care RX to send teams to the Family Islands until it eventually sets up individual clinics in these locations. It presently provides a once-a-month service to Abaco, but will expand into the southern Bahamas next because of demand for its services.

Immalasha Thompson- Johnson, director at Foot Care RX, added: “That’s a pocket that we often don’t give enough attention to, and so we want to capitalise on those individuals that are lacking and needing our assistance. Whatever we raise we are taking it one clinic at a time. It all depends on what we raise, and whatever we have we are going to work to see how we can spread our wings into all of those locations.”

Foot Care RX has to-date raised $336,690 from around 223 investors via ArawakX, with the closing date set for October 31. While this represents only 16.8 percent of the $2m maximum it was seeking, it is some 131 percent more than the $15,000 minimum threshold for a successful offering.

The minimum was exceeded just four days after the offering was launched in August. While there has been no request for an extension to the raise, Foot Care RX can return to ArawakX for more funding six months after the present offering closes.

Ms Thompson-Johnson said of the new office: “This hub is extremely important because this is where our parent company hub is. It provides the proper training ground needed for all of those persons who will be working under our franchise. So this here is really a training ground. This is our head office, and we have immediate access to our chief executive and our chief surgeon, Dr Johnson.”