A RAPIDLY growing business which provides fancy dress packs to students has smashed its crowdfunding target.

Worcester-based Fancy Fresher launched the bid for £30,000 in return for a five per cent equity stake via crowdfunding platform Seedrs in July and has now raised almost £32,000.

Headquartered on Shrub Hill Industrial Estate, the online fancy dress company operates heavily in the student market and offers bespoke fancy dress packs for new students to customise and buy online in preparation for their freshers week parties.

It was founded in August last year by 25 years old entrepreneur Dom Portman, who had been working for a lettings agency when he decided to quit and go full time on developing his idea. Last year it won the West Midlands start up of the year award in the Big Start Up Loans competition.

The crowdfunding cash will be used to expand its 40-strong sales team by 300 per cent, as well as hiring three regional sales representatives.

Mr Portman said: "We think this would enable us to get a much greater volume of traffic and reach per university. This year we aim to match reps up with their own university and run more customer focused PR campaigns through our reps. We should also be able to host stalls at more universities."

Fancy Fresher currently offers products to 83 universities with a focus on freshers week. It also provides costumes for other peak times of the year and also plans to move into the hen and stag do and children's parties market.