Pure Electric, the e-scooter manufacturer, ‘will be bigger than Dyson.

Lando Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix last month, but his father still has a smile on his face.

Adam Norris has accompanied Lando Norris to 350 exhausting race weekends in his quest to reach the top of the global motorsport. But last month, he saw Lando on the Formula 1 podium for the first time.

Norris Snr, who spent a decade helping his son reach the top of his profession, is now investing his considerable wealth and energy into another project. Pure Electric, his e-scooter company, is looking to raise up £7 million in investment. Norris has secured £5 million in funding from high-net-worth individuals. He will launch a Crowdcube campaign this week to raise the remaining £7 million.

Norris requires the funds to create new models and expand into overseas markets. The use of private e-scooters is still illegal in Britain. Norris doesn’t seem to be bothered by this, as he says that the laws are only strictly enforced on certain roads.

“People use them on the roads… but they also cycle on the sidewalk, and drive at 32 mph [instead of the 30 mph limit] which is illegal. I have spoken to nurses that, rather than walk home at night, bought a scooter. They said that they didn’t feel secure. He explains that some cleaners arrive at work in the early morning hours on a scooter.

Norris had a less than stellar start in life. He only passed the English GCSE exam after seven attempts due to severe dyslexia. He then established and managed the pensions department at Bristol wealth manager Hargreaves Lansdown.

He sold a substantial amount of his company shares — explaining proudly how he was able to get a piece at the height of the market in 2019 — in 2022, his personal fortune is estimated at £200million.

“Hargreaves-Lansdown had lost much of its entrepreneurial spirit.” He said: “I had shares for more than ten years, but I was not happy with them and wanted to use that money in my own business.” “I was fed up with the angel investors because they did not care about my capital. I realized that the person [in whom I wanted to invest] was myself. I have the grit, determination and tenacity. “I’ve built the entire strategy for Lando and I have the t-shirt from Hargreaves and Lansdown.”

Norris invested more than £60million into Pure. Its investors include Bang & Olufsen CEO Kristian Tear. Norris, who has mingled with business titans Jeff Bezos at F1 races and Tim Cook in the past, has high expectations for Pure.

“My ambition is build a company bigger than Dyson, and I’d like to bring Pure to an IPO in five years. More than four billion people live in cities. Pollution and congestion are problems, whether you’re in Singapore, Shanghai, or New York. “In the future, people will use zero-emission vehicles for personal transportation.”

These lofty goals, however, seem to be far removed from the reality of today. Pure is expected to report a loss of £5.5m on £13.3m in sales this year. Norris aims to make a modest profit the following year.

In many countries including Germany, Japan and France, as well as most US states, e-scooters are legal for use on the road.

Norris, however, says that the UK remains one of Pure’s largest markets. The demand comes from motorsports workers who use them for racing weekends to zip around vast paddocks and horse-riding event workers. Norris believes that Japan and Germany are Pure’s most promising markets for next year.

Since Norris founded Pure in 2018, the company has sold over 285,000 scooters. The company’s product ranges from the Air model (£$449) to a sleeker, faster scooter that is produced in partnership by McClaren, Lando’s Formula 1 Team, and sells for £1,200. The maximum speed for the scooters is 25kph.

Pure Electric is expected to make a loss of £5.5 million this year, while Norris targets a small profit for next year

Pure will close its 17 UK shops in 2022. Now, its scooters can be purchased through 800 retail outlets as well as the company’s website.

Norris, however, is not one to be discouraged even by a few setbacks. The entrepreneur who has hired several Dyson staffers and talks a lot about the company, claimed that his business is motivated by something bigger than one of Britain’s most renowned engineers.

Norris stated, “If Dyson did something other than hairdryers, vacuum cleaners and other household items, they had done good for the environment, we would be in a much better place.” “I’m trying to figure out how to improve cities around the world and decarbonise. Dyson is doing sustainable agriculture, but it could do more.

Norris is a very obsessive person, and his personality makes it seem that Pure will fail despite its best efforts. Lando’s father, who wanted to help him reach the top of the game, studied paediatrics to improve Lando’s hand-speed and bought him a rally car for racing around the fields in Glastonbury when he was 12.

After years of hard work, Norris was he not tempted by his son’s glamourous, world-trotting lifestyle?

“I could live in Monaco and travel the world. I could watch my son race, and drink champagne. I’ve never found material things to be very fulfilling. “I don’t just want to be known as the guy who sold more British pensions than anyone else.”