An Amsterdam-based start-up developing electric city scooters, has managed to attract €3.1m in crowdfunding, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Wednesday.

More than 2,500 investors from several European countries took part in the issue though the Seedrs equity platform, raising twice the amount the owners of Bolt had hoped to raise.

The first trial model of the Bolt scooter is expected to come off the VDL production line no earlier than next February. Full-scale production is expected to begin in early 2019 – a year after older mopeds are banned from Amsterdam’s streets.

Bolt co-founder Bart Jacobsz Rosier estimates the market in Europe for the scooters at 800,000. In Amsterdam itself, 77% of scooters and mopeds were built in 2011 or earlier and will be banned from the city’s streets next year.