TWO design engineers have quit their jobs at technology giant Dyson to concentrate on bringing to market their own pioneering inventions.

Business partners Ashley Hribar-Green and Matthew Aston Cain are inventors of Magno, the world’s first magnetically controlled propelling pencil and have opened up a design studio on Malmsbury High Street.

Their invention, which uses magnets to create a constantly smooth pencil mark, was so successful that they launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and raised £80,000 in 60 days, 800 per cent more than their target.

Mr Hribar-Green, 28, from Bristol, said: “We were both at Dyson for a few years and it was a big decision to go solo, but it has been really good. You never really know how it will go but we had faith in our product.”

Following the success of the Magno, their latest project, Magno-Ink is mid-way through a 60 day Kickstarter campaign and has attracted £52,000 in pre-sales.

The campaign runs until December 15 but their immediate success means manufacture can already begin in China.

Magno-Ink has a multi-magnet propulsion system, is engineered so the weight in hand is perfectly poised and features anti-roll technology that the inventor describes as an “experience” to use.

He continued: “Backers buy into the people behind the product as well as the product. We really focused on customer service and on the first day of Magno-Ink on Kickstarter we had a big influx of sales from previous customers wanting to purchase our new product.”

Mr Aston Cain, 26, from Malmsbury, added: “There’s been such a great response, we’d like to thank all of our backers, it serves as a strong validation that this is a product that people want and need.”

The friends are hopeful of shortly signing contracts to sell their products through a number of high-end store chains.

The Magno is already being stocked by leading internet stationers Hamilton Pens.

But they remain modest about their achievements. “We’re just two Malmesbury boys taking on the stationery market one Magno at a time,” they said.