Security and compliance tech company SafetyCulture has secured $35.5m in new funding round led by TDM Growth Partners and offers some of its services for free to help companies through the coronavirus crisis.
The Australian RegTech company plans to use the money to reward its early employees, source new talent and ramp up its product development. The investment round pushes SafetyCulture’s valuation to $AU1.3bn ($800,000). The round brings the total capital injected into the scaleup to $92.09m.
The roughly 10% of the employees who had been with the company for more than three years were able to cash out on their equity as part of the round.
“This is an exciting milestone for us to achieve as a company, especially during uncertain times like these,” said Luke Anear, founder and CEO of SafetyCulture. “We’re particularly happy about giving employees the opportunity to sell some of their equity as a reward for all their hard work and continued loyalty.”
TDM Growth Partners, the investment firm, led the round. Hamish Corlett, partner at TDM Growth Partners, said that while the firm’s investors “ravels the globe to find” startups to invest in, they “feel particularly passionate about supporting Australian founders and their businesses, and there is no doubt in our mind, there are few better than Luke and what he and his team have created right here in our backyard.” “The future is incredibly bright for SafetyCulture and we are excited to now be sharing that journey with them for many years to come,” he said.
Other investors participating in the round included Blackbird Ventures, Skip Capital and Index Ventures as well as the former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy.
To date, more than 500,000 workers and 26,000 organisations in 85 countries use SafetyCulture’s core iAuditor app to complete more than 600 million checks per year. This has helped deliver growth, with annual recurring revenue up 85% during the past year. The business is now cash positive.
However, the company is, like many other ventures, affected by the current coronavirus crisis. SafetyCulture is saying it is doing everything it can to help its diverse customer base around the world navigate the new challenges it has presented. Like many other RegTech and FinTech companies, it has provided some of its services for free to help companies ride out the storm.
“Keeping people safe is at the core of our company’s purpose,” said Anear. “To support workers across industries affected by COVID-19, we’ve launched a series of tools to help them stay on top of COVID-19 related safety issues in the workplace. We’re also providing free six month access to iAuditor Premium and other SafetyCulture products to our healthcare, emergency, education and volunteer workers who are providing vital services to our communities at this time.”
The news about SafetyCulture’s raise comes after five years that saw FinTech investment in Australaisa triple, according to FinTech Global’s research. FinTech ventures in Australasia raised $3.6bn across 241 transactions between 2015 and 2019, with Australian companies capturing 91.1% of the investment on the continent. In that period, investment jumped from $481.6m to $1.56bn.
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