The Cambridge Satchel Company’s co-founder has ambitious expansion plans at home and abroad after securing investment.

Co-founder of The Cambridge Satchel Company Julie Deane may need to upgrade her own five-year-old bag. That’s to ensure it can cope with the many meetings and interviews she has been in demand for after securing $21m (£12.7m) investment from private equity firm Index Ventures last week.

The fundraising is testament to Deane who, with her mother Freda Thomas, founded The Cambridge Satchel Company in her kitchen with just £600. That was in 2009 and five years later the retailer turns over £13m.

“It does go to show what can be done. I go into schools and talk to the young people there and it is such a privilege to make them believe that [they can build their own business] especially with the globalisation phenomenon.

“They think that if you’re not part of a big corporate company you can’t do much. But actually with £600 in the kitchen and real drive, ambition and tenacity it can be done.”

Deane’s bags are known for their bright colours and striking patterns, which include a Mickey Mouse print.

And they have become a popular celebrity fashion accessory - stars such as fashionista Alexa Chung, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and US actress Zooey Deschanel have all been spotted clutching their leather straps.

But Cambridge University graduate Deane is also selling the story behind the bag. She was driven to create the business so she could earn enough to put her children through private school after her daughter, Emily, who is now 14, was being bullied.

Product design was a natural choice for Deane, who is an obsessive perfectionist.

“I’m a bit awkward and hard to satisfy,” she says.

That personality trait led her to pick up on product flaws and she started writing letters.

On writing to Cadbury to complain about the way its new recipe for Curly Wurly chocolate bars made the toffee break off when cold, she received a thank you note in response and a plastic watch.

“That’s why I had to start my own business because people weren’t listening. Cadbury never changed their Curly Wurly recipe,” she laughs.

Deane has a busy time ahead as she aims to use the investment to create a £100m business in the next five years. Building a retail presence is high on her agenda.

At present The Cambridge Satchel Company trades online and from two shops in Cambridge and Covent Garden - a pop-up store in Spitalfields opened over Christmas. The bags are also sold through other retailers. Deane reveals that funding will lead to more of Cambridge Satchel Company’s own stores, although she says the number is yet to be thrashed out.

“I really think that to be a brand with a real presence it’s really important to have a bricks-and-mortar plan. So if you walk into one of the stores you’ll be hit by the colours and the smell of the leather and all the bags are displayed on kitchen tables,” she says.

She also intends to double the size of the workforce at her Leicester factory, which she opened two years ago. But any new hires must be dog-lovers according to Deane, who takes her boxer dog Rupert with her wherever she goes.

Despite Deane’s success as an entrepreneur she is humble and cost-conscious. She and her mother only started paying themselves a wage from the business two years ago.

Overseas expansion is also key to achieve Deane’s £100m sales target, specifically China. Deane joined the Prime Minister on his recent trade tour of the country and now aims to target the country in the next six months.

The US is also on her hit list. Deane feels in tune with the American consumer as her husband is from across the pond and they lived in Chicago for five years.

Deane may need to expand her business to include a range of luggage with the air miles she looks likely to clock up on The Cambridge Satchel Company’s path to global domination.