24 January 2007 – A British product designer has secured finance for a plastic overflow cut-off device after appearing on the BBC TV programme Dragons’ Den.
James Barnham and Ian Sillett, a fellow director of About Time Design, turned down £150,000 offered in the programme for 40% of their business. Now they have raised £200,000 of private equity finance via venture capital company E-synergy in exchange for an amount of equity that Branham would only describe as “an awful lot better” than the Dragons’ Den deal.
The Nova-Flo device prevents flooding from an overflowing bath by cutting off the water supply without relying on batteries or electrical supply. Barnham designed the Nova-Flo as part of his master’s degree in Enterprise at London South Bank University.
With support from the Emerald Fund, the university’s business mentor Ian Sillett and its patent attorney, Mark Milhench of First Thought IP, he filed patent applications on his invention.
Barnham is aiming to produce more than 20,000 Nova-Flo units in the first year and is currently short listing plastics manufacturers.
