Scottish company CarGo have invented an innovative new product, combining a childrens suitcase with a portable car booster seat.

The concept came from personal experience. When on holiday, founder Gary Burns hired a car, along with two booster seats for his children, which were dirty and dented. Concerned about the safety of them – and being charged a whopping 70 euros to use them – Gary thought that he could provide a better alternative.

Recognising that he probably wasn’t alone in this situation, he set out to create a safe, child-friendly booster seat – that was easy to transport. Since then, he has designed a childrens suitcase, with 12 litre capacity, that folds neatly into a booster seat with arms that spring up and a padded, wipe-clean cushion. Although having always had an interest in art, Gary had no formal graphic design qualifications – so he sketched a prototype and with a design team created a CAD of the product.

The idea has already had plenty of support, with Gary pitching the CarGo Seat to would-be investors on the show and was shortlisted to receive seed stage funding of £2,300 and then a further investment of £25,000. His designs have been recognised by Glasgow’s Got Business talent, Intuit100up, New Start Scotland Bright Ideas and Entrepreneurial Spark (Best Creative Innovation winner 2012).

His key focus now is to get CarGo seat to market and put in the work required, and has launched a crowdfunding campaign on CrowdCube to do so.

When asked why crowdfunding was the chosen route, rather than more traditional methods of raising finance.

“We chose crowdfunding for this round of funding as we require the money but having the support of the crowd and input in say the colours, design, price point is very important to us as well. We hope they are future customers and be marketeers in promoting the product to friends, family & contacts.”

Over the past few years, crowdfunding sites have popped up left, right and centre. However, Crowdcube really stuck out for their business, feeling that their connection with Scottish firms made them the best choice.

“We had worked closely with a Scottish Legal firm at Entrepreneurial Spark in Glasgow called Harper McLeod, who have helped Scottish businesses embrace equity crowdfunding and felt this was a perfect partnership.”

For more information, visit Crowdcube.com