Zenos to speed ahead with sports car production after raising £2m
SPORTS car maker Zenos has won £2m funding from investors including Carphone Warehouse founder Sir Charles Dunstone.
Zenos was founded two years ago by Ansar Ali and Mark Edwards, previously chief executive officer and chief operating officer respectively of Caterham cars. The firm plans to produce its first cars next year, with a starting price of around £25,000.
It has sold a stake worth around £1m to venture capital trust Pembroke, which is controlled by Time Out owner Peter Dubens.
Other backers include Dunstone and Next boss Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise.
Pembroke’s annual report said it was investing in Zenos Cars, which “has created lightweight sports cars that provide thrilling driveability and performance at an affordable price point.”
It said the investment would be used “to fund the manufacture of the pre-production test car and provide working capital for production of the order book in 2015”.
Zenos’ chairman is veteran technology executive John Hughes, who also chairs data centre owner Telecity and recently-floated online takeaway company Just-Eat.
Pembroke said Zenos was one of 17 projects it invested in last year, including Chilango and KX Gym.