Raleigh-based shopping cart wheel startup GoWheels Inc. has raised $400,000, with the vast majority of this coming from North Carolina individual investors, in Round A financing.

The company, which was founded in 2017, boasts a new kind of wheel that is modular in design. The product contains parts that are removable, replaceable and directly recyclable through closed-loop methods.

GoWheels is currently in production and expects delivery of a product for internal testing by mid-May of this year.

The company has two East Cost retailers lined up to test the new wheel for its sustainability component in terms of function and customer response.

In addition, the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University has agreed to test GoWheels’ product against currently available wheel options and will publish its findings.

Still, the company hopes to undergo more tests in the near future. GoWheels is currently seeking additional field test sites, particularly on the West Coast.

In addition to product improvement, the company has recently launched a website, which it will continue to develop throughout the year, and is pending patent approval for its wheel design.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is the federal agency that is responsible for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks. The Patent Cooperation Treaty assists applicants in seeking international patent protection for their inventions. Published and in review at USPTO, the company is both USPTO and PCT patent pending.

“If all this comes out favorably, say by the beginning of [the fourth quarter of] 2019, we will head to market with a radically designed wheel which makes shopping carts infinitely more sustainable and far less expensive to maintain, to the benefit of not only store owners, but the environment and the customer as well,” CEO William Bateman said.