Townsville-based startup SafetyCulture has announced the closing of an AU$30 million Series B round, led by international venture capital firm Index Ventures.
Backed by renowned venture capital firms like Index Ventures, Blackbird Ventures and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, the investment comes as the second largest funding round secured by an Australian tech startup this year. Remarking on raising venture capital, Anear said,
This opens up the next stage of our growth and development. We have been a product-centric company, and will continue to be, but we now need to expand our go-to-market teams in the US, UK and Australia.
Founded in 2004, SafetyCulture offers innovative, low-cost mobile first products that empower users to create a safe and efficient workplace. In 2011, CEO Luke Anear noticed the adoption of smartphones in everyday life. Thereafter, he started testing and developing solutions for safety in the workplace, based around a smartphone app platform and came up with iAuditor.
The company’s signature and revolutionary app has become the highly-used safety audit app in the world. It provides companies with a digital health and safety checklist, accompanying data analytics to help businesses detect and prevent serious problems before they occur.
iAuditor’s unique product design and the purpose it serves has resulted in widespread adoption of the software— with the app already being used in 70 percent of ASX’s top 50 companies. Also, the firm has several big customers around the world, including Qantas, Hilton, Coles and Coca-Cola. The app’s revenue model is structured so that it is free to download and use, but when companies want to share the data, they have to pay $9-$15 a month, per user.
SafetyCulture has achieved about 5% of their long term vision, so the additional funding will be used to grow, push forward with their product road map and bring new features to the market quicker. The business has now raised more than $38 million and is valued at more than $160 million. Anear believes he could have a $1 billion business in five years. Farquhar says,
It’s been a rewarding journey working with Luke and the SafetyCulture team and I’m excited to be part of their next milestone. There is strong market potential globally and it will be great to see the new funding ramp up their expansion efforts and accelerate the rollout of new product features.
SafetyCulture’s latest raise will see Jan Hammer, general partner at Index Ventures join Richard Baker, co-founder of Blackbird Ventures and Luke Anear on the company board, while Scott Farquhar will continue working as an advisor.
