Medical product design company FutureNova has announced it has made its first successful sale in the United States for its FlipPad sterile iPad case.
FlipPad
The FlipPad is designed to allow clinical staff and surgeons to use the iPad in sterile environments. Healthcare staff can use the technology as a replacement for any outdated monitoring systems currently in place in operating theatres and treatment rooms across the UK.
The product has won various Innovate UK grants for its design and has received the ‘Made for Apple’ licence. FutureNova state that they see the FlipPad as a gateway to a new market in healthcare for the iPad. Due to strict hygiene requirements set by the NHS and other health providers, healthcare professionals have not been able to use technologies such as the iPad.
After receiving a bout of equity funding via Kent County Council’s EXEK programme, the company set up a sales office in Kent. NCL Innovation, a UK leading early stage technology investor, was also engaged by KCC to manage the funding process and raise additional private capital.
The company has grown over the last 18 months and is preparing to move to the manufacturing phase of its FlipPad to a high capacity manufacturing facility in Kent.
Despite strong interest from the NHS the UK is currently lagging behind the US in sales for the FlipPad.
Mike Casey, MD of FutureNova, said: “We made an active decision to target the US market, whilst waiting for things to gather pace in the UK, which we have no doubt, given our experience stateside, it will. We have been working alongside Apple to line up a number of major US distributors and have started to see sales flood in.
It’s got to the point where we are forecasting sales of over $4.8 Million from the US alone and $8.5 Million before the end of 2017. Thanks to KCC’s initial investment I was able to bring my product to market successfully, hire experienced resource and find a local manufacturing partner with the capability to scale up a highly technical product.
NCL have also been instrumental in helping me to attract further private capital and preparing the business for market entry. With the practical help and valuable advice from NCL and KCC we are now in a position to scale up manufacturing and rapidly grow our exports to the USA and Europe. We are proud that we are making the FlipPad in Britain and proving once again that UK companies can compete and win.”
Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, said: “Young technology companies such as FutureNova require not only financial backing, but also experienced support to help them move from concept to success in the market. FutureNova is proof that KCC’s equity program is attracting talented start up companies to Kent, helping them to grow into developed businesses, building the county’s reputation for technological innovation and delivering jobs, skills and long term investment for the county.”