Member Article

Durham designers launch £150k crowdfunding to create regional manufacturing jobs

Durham’s Orsto, have launched an equity crowdfunding campaign that aims to raise £150k to put prototypes of its “smartwartch” technology into production, creating North East jobs.

The design engineering outfit are using Crowdcube to fund production of its technology, which is says was once only imaginable in the realms of sci-fi.

Following the release of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, which operates on Google’s Android system, Orsto say their technology is ready to take on the international giants.

The firm’s ‘X3’ is a watch that functions like a smartphone, including features such as GPS navigation; 3G and Wi-Fi connection; a music playe and two cameras.

Company founder Paul Gill said: “The extended development process and our reluctance to launch a Smartwatch to market too early is fully justified by our new product. It also allows us to utilize more advanced technology to further improve the X3 prior to market launch and production.”

With the help of funding on UK based equity crowdfunding site Crowdcube, Orsto are expecting to launch the X3 in Spring 2014. Crowdcube allows businesses to offer shares in their company in return for funding, with a recent campaign on the site raising a record breaking £1.9million.

Orsto’s goal is £150,000 in return for 12.5% of the business which will be used for two purposes;

1) to produce 200 prototypes for release to press, and to allow Orsto to begin approaching retailers and distributors prior to the Spring 2014 launch; and

2) to manufacture and assemble the X3 in Europe and the UK rather than its current location of China, giving Orsto greater control over the quality of products, and bringing jobs closer to home.

Paul added: “We’re manufacturing our prototypes in China at the minute, but we’d love to bring that business closer to home. We’re looking at Europe but ideally we’d love to manufacture the products in the UK and even the North East. Not only would it make quality control easier, but it would create a lot of jobs in the region.”

More information on the Crowdcube campaign can be found here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .