Essex property developer Laurence Rutter has teamed up with North Country entrepreneur Russell Dolman to raise £1 million in a private fundraising for SkidProof International. They hold 20 and 80 per cent respectively of the company, which was set up to tackle the problem of people slipping on wet and dry surfaces at home and at work, which they claim costs UK businesses and insurers £750 million a year.

SkidProof owns the rights to what Rutter and Dolman believe to be a ‘revolutionary’ slip-resistant chemical product, a ‘non-acidic nanoparticle-based transparent coating that can be painted or sprayed onto natural and artificial ‘walk-on surfaces’. Patents protect SkidProof, which is manufactured in Austria and Hungary.

Now SkidProof, where Rutter is managing director and Dolman heads operations, says it has secured exclusive global distribution, marketing and manufacturing rights to the product and associated intellectual property for ten years. For potential backers, Rutter and Dolman hold out the prospect of an exit ‘within three years via a disposal, buy-out or Stock Exchange listing