A Sodbury business is looking to rival Dyson after raising more than half a million pounds.

Pablo Montero, 38, and Lucas Horne, 35, met in 2006 on their first day working at Dyson.

They have now left to launch Lupe Technology and their own cordless vacuum - which they claim is twice as powerful as that of their former employer.

The inventors claim it is a "game-changer" in the market because it has the same power as wired vacuums but with greater mobility.

The Lupe Pure Cordless is now set to go into production after raising £556,000 on Kickstarter, making it the biggest-ever crowdfunding campaign for a vacuum cleaner.

Dad-of-one Pablo, a trained aeronautical engineer, said: "I think it's fair to say you could not find two people who know more about vacuum cleaner design than us.

"We've designed what we think is the best vacuum cleaner in the world."

When the pair met in 2006 Lucas was a graduate trainee and Pablo was a research manager.

Pablo left in 2012 followed by Lucas a year later but they joined forces after becoming frustrated at poor products on the market.

"I left Dyson saying I never want to work in vacuums again," he said. "I wanted to go back into aeronautical engineering before we had the idea for Lupe.

"But years after leaving we were frustrated at seeing many cordless vacuums not performing as claimed.

"We've spent the last three years designing, developing, building and testing countless prototypes, proving every time to push the limits of what is achievable."

Lupe's brushless Japanese motor is capable of spinning at 108,000 RPM - around twice the speed of a jet engine.

Dad-of-two Lucas added: "What's the point in having a 'small portable' cordless vacuum if it barely gets the job done?"

Lupe Technology is based on Badminton Road, Old Sodbury, just a few miles from Sir James Dyson's £15million country estate.