East Kilbride based SHE Software has secured a £3 million growth capital investment from NVM Private Equity (NVM) as it prepares to enter international markets with its highly configurable health and safety software and create over 50 new jobs by the end of 2018.
SHE Software will use the funding to open up 15 highly skilled jobs in a new office in the US and has ambitious plans to double the size of its development and support teams at its Scotland HQ, where it currently employs 60 staff.
Led by CEO Matthew Elson, SHE Software is the creator of Assure, a software platform that helps businesses to achieve and demonstrate health and safety compliance, whilst at the same time generating cost-savings by significantly reducing the administrative burden.
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 an incredibly successful quarter for the health and safety software 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 commencing in the last 3 months.
The investment was led by NVM by Investment Director Charlie Winward and Investment Associate Jason Warren. Charlie will join the board as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.
Charlie Winward, Investment Director at NVM said: “SHE Software is a great example of the kind of exciting business we are seeing in Scotland at the moment. 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. We are excited to work with Matthew and his team to deliver on these plans, and believe we can provide valuable support in the journey through our experience in scaling businesses at NVM.”
Matthew Elson, CEO of SHE Software, said: “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.”
Matthew continued: “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.”
SHE Software engaged ScaleUp Group to provide vital insights and guidance on scaling up as it prepares for fast global expansion.
John O’Connell, Chairman at ScaleUp Group, said: “We were delighted to offer our knowledge, connections and experience from over £4bn in exits to Matthew and the team to successfully raise growth (ScaleUp) funding. We will continue to support Matthew and the team through their growth “climb” – consistent with our business commitment and mission to Grow Global Champions”
