Electrocomponents : RS Components teams up with Crowdcube to help bring DesignSpark community design ideas to fruition

Link up with UK's leading online equity crowdfunding platform means reduction in fees associated with equity funding

Oxford, UK, 2 August 2017 - RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the global distributor for engineers, today announced it is collaborating with Crowdcube, the leading UK-based online equity crowdfunding platform, to help members of its DesignSpark engineering community realise their product and business ideas.

The agreement between RS and Crowdcube marks an important expansion of the third-party services available to UK-based DesignSpark members. Members applying through DesignSpark, to be considered by Crowdcube for equity crowdfunding, will benefit from a 10% discount in Crowdcube's standard fees, if accepted.

Crowdcube is the UK's market-leading crowdfunding platform with approximately two and a half times more equity raised than its nearest competitor. The platform has delivered more than 500 successful funding 'raises' since its inception and raised more than £27 million in its most recent financial quarter, including 10 raises of £1 million or more.

The DesignSpark community provides a platform that enables its members to share their ideas and to seek advice and support from other engineers and community members. Since its launch in 2010, the DesignSpark initiative has also delivered a growing portfolio of free tools that are easy to use and enable design engineers to reach their goals quickly and without financial impact.

The DesignSpark portfolio of free-for-download software includes DesignSpark PCB for electronic board design, DesignSpark Mechanical software for 3D modelling, and DesignSpark Electrical for electrical system design. The latest tool in the suite is Obsolescence Manager, an online tool that enables product developers to manage the problem of obsolescence and plan for when end-of-life (EOL) notices are placed on components and parts that will soon cease to be produced, repaired and supported by their manufacturers.

'DesignSpark is an important enabling initiative that helps engineers and entrepreneurs realise their ambitions and bring their projects, products and business ideas to market,' said Mike Bray, Vice President of DesignSpark at RS. 'Partnering with Crowdcube provides easier access for members of the DesignSpark engineering community to the investment support Crowdcube offers, with a significant reduction in the fees associated with that.'

-Ends-

About RS Components
RS Components and Allied Electronics are the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc, the global distributor for engineers. With operations in 32 countries, we offer more than 500,000 products through the internet, catalogues and at trade counters to over one million customers, shipping around 50,000 parcels a day. Our products, sourced from 2,500 leading suppliers, include electronic components, electrical, automation and control, and test and measurement equipment, and engineering tools and consumables.

Electrocomponents is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the last financial year ended 31 March 2017 had revenues of £1.51bn.

For more information, please visit the website at www.rs-online.com.

Editorial Contact
Aakriti Kaushik
PR Manager - EMEA
RS Components
Aakriti.Kaushik@rs-components.com
+44 (0)7795 400651

PR Agency Contact
Janice Fenton
Account Director
Publitek Technology PR
janice.fenton@publitek.com
+44 (0)1225 470000

Further information is available via these links:
Twitter: @RSComponents; @alliedelec; @designsparkRS
RS Components on Linkedin
www.linkedin.com/company/rs-components

Electrocomponents plc
www.electrocomponents.com
RS Components
www.rs-online.com
DesignSpark
www.rs-online.com/designspark