Scottish Company ‘Lights up’ with Funding

Scottish technology start-up Design Led Products has won first-round funding from leading private equity investment syndicate Braveheart Ventures as part of a new partnership with Hillington Park Innovation Centre.

The deal – agreed through Braveheart’s “SMART Equity Scheme” operated with Bank of Scotland Corporate and Scottish Enterprise’s Co-Investment Fund – will enable entrepreneur James Gourlay to increase manufacturing volumes for brand-enhancing lighting products, using new techniques developed since start-up last year.

The funding deal is the first to be struck since Braveheart agreed a joint venture with Hillington Park Innovation Centre (HPIC) as part of its SMART Equity Scheme, which provides investment to technology start-ups who have already qualified for Government-funded SMART Awards.

Braveheart has similar agreements with seven Scottish universities and the arrangement with HPIC is the first of its kind with a non-academic organisation.

“The team at HPIC is working with many interesting young technology companies, and the quality of advice and support it offers has given us the comfort of knowing that their businesses arrive as investment prospects with a strong level of credibility,” commented Geoffrey Thomson, CEO of Braveheart.

“Design Led Products is a very promising company with good technology and a strong commercial approach to the market, and we are delighted to support the venture.”

The company is among those to be “hot housed” by the Scottish Enterprise High-Growth Start-up Unit, who continue to advise the company alongside HPIC. James Gourlay, Design Led Products’ founder, commented: "As a new technology start-up it was very important that we found a good seed investor, with an appetite for subsequent rounds of funding. Braveheart Ventures has an excellent track record in identifying and nurturing business opportunities with high growth potential in our sector."

"Business support from the Hillington Innovation Centre Team and SE National High Growth Unit has been invaluable in securing this initial deal."

"Our starting point has been to sell low volume, high margin products to UK based companies, but we are now migrating to high volume products for global OEMs."

Brendan Waters, who handled the deal for HPIC, commented: “Design Led Products is a very exciting prospect with excellent technology and good customer traction already. This deal is tangible evidence that HPIC is on the right track in terms of helping businesses to raise financial backing, and this is a great start for our new relationship with Braveheart.”

Tom Brock, Associate Director at Bank of Scotland Corporate’s Emerging Business team added, “Building on our excellent relationship with HPIC, we were impressed with the highly experienced management team at Design Led. This expertise, combined with a strong commercial proposition contributed to our decision to support the deal along with our co-investment partners. We wish James and his team every success in the future.”

12th April 2005 Talent Scotland