East Kilbride-based SHE Software has secured a £3m investment from NVM Private Equity (NVM) as it prepares to enter international markets with its health and safety software, and to create more than 50 new jobs by the end of the year.
SHE Software will use the funding to open a new office in the US, employing 15 people, and has plans to double the size of its development and support teams at its headquarters in Scotland, where it employs 60 staff.
Led by chief executive Matthew Elson, SHE Software is the creator of Assure, a platform that helps businesses achieve and demonstrate health and safety compliance, at the same time as generating cost-savings by “significantly reducing the administrative burden”.
A focus for the business has been to make the software configurable, which allows SHE Software to offer a tailored solution to customers across many different industries. It also encompasses a suite of reporting and monitoring tools to give customers insight into the risks faced by their business, helping health and safety managers identify and address risks more effectively.
ScaleUp Group, chaired by John O’Connell, has been supporting SHE Software in its scaling up as it prepares for its international expansion. The cash injection rounds off a successful quarter for the firm as it introduced multilingual functionality to its software and welcomed 12 new employees across its UK and New Zealand offices.
The past nine months have seen SHE Software work with 34 new customers across various industries in both the UK and overseas, with half of those relationships beginning in the last three months. The investment was led by NVM by investment director Charlie Winward and investment associate Jason Warren and Winward will join the board as a non-executive director.
“SHE Software is a great example of the kind of exciting business we are seeing in Scotland at the moment,” said Winward.
“Matthew and his team have built an excellent product and the business has grown very strongly over the last few years with a clear plan to continue on this growth trajectory, both by building upon the existing UK operation and by expanding into the US market.”
Matthew Elson added: “We are delighted to work with our new investors at NVM and to seize the tremendous opportunity we have to penetrate the North American market and bring the benefits of Assure to a much wider customer base.
“Our plans are ambitious but we are confident that this funding boost will enable us to maintain our 60 per cent per annum growth rate while successfully driving international expansion.
“Our success in the last quarter is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the team that we have in place, which, coupled with the benefits that Assure has to offer, puts us in a strong position to continue to grow globally.
“Our customers are individuals who deal with complex and dispersed operations where the more traditional approach to managing health and safety is no longer adequate. We believe that our software brings a fresh, new approach to the health and safety software market.”
ScaleUp’s John O’Connell commented : “We were delighted to offer our knowledge, connections and experience from over £4bn in exits to Matthew and the team to successfully raise growth funding.
“We will continue to support Matthew and the team through their growth – consistent with our business commitment and mission to grow global champions.”
