North East Digital Workplace Safety Provider Notify Announces £3.1m Investment Raise

Notify Technology, the fast-growth provider of digital workplace safety, wellbeing, environmental and governance compliance services has announced the completion of its latest funding round, raising £3.1M in new equity.

The round was led by Calculus Capital who invested £1.85M alongside the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia, and private investors, in one of the largest recent VCT investments in the North East.

The funds will accelerate investment in sales and marketing, alongside product development to deliver artificial intelligence capability to the Notify platform, plus additional functionality to help Notify’s clients meet the growing demands of ESG reporting.

Founded in 2017 by Duncan Davies and Andy Dumbell, organisations use Notify’s mobile-first software platform and integrated modules to help them deliver improvements to their safety, wellbeing and sustainability culture and compliance. The business counts Travis Perkins, Siemens Mobility, Birmingham City University, and Cazoo amongst its clients, and has users in over 100 countries, capturing 30,000 safety events, audits, actions and risk assessments per month.

Incoming investors, Calculus Capital and Gavin Disney-May, will also join Notify’s board, bringing valuable sector experience.

Duncan Davies, Notify’s CEO and co-founder, says: “We’ve delivered consistently strong subscription growth over the last three-and-a-half years since Mercia first invested - including 105% growth during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic – and we see the increasing importance organisations are placing on keeping their people safe and well. We’re confident we can do more with more capital.

I’m really grateful to the team at Mercia who first invested back in 2018, and are backing us in this latest funding round. Mercia has supported us in getting to the point where we’re able to attract new investors of the calibre of Calculus Capital into the syndicate. We’ve also benefited from having a fantastic Chair and early-investor, Jayne Archbold, who has shaped our team and strategy.

We see significant opportunities to help clients solve some of their key challenges around employee wellbeing, sustainability and ESG, and we are delighted to welcome Calculus and Gavin on board.”

Richard Moore, Co-Head of Investments, Calculus Capital said: “Notify has developed fantastic software that is easily configured to suit a wide range of businesses. It is great to be investing in a business that’s built around modern, mobile-first technology, where deployments are rapid and where customers have so much flexibility on how they utilise the digital tools. On top of that, the team have built a brilliant service-led culture as evidenced by their market leading client retention rate.

Calculus has been interested in EHS Software for some time and tracked the growing demands for ESG compliance, so we are excited to support Duncan, Andy and the team to grow awareness of Notify, which helps companies make their workforce safer and healthier, and reduces their environmental impact. We believe this is an exciting stage in the development of a ‘Tech for Good’ award winner with strong growth potential both in the UK and globally “

Jan Oosthuizen, Investment Manager for Mercia, said: “It has been great to support the team at Notify once again and see them go from strength to strength. We very much look forward to further developing an already effective team dynamic with the addition of Calculus and Gavin to help the Company achieve its potential.”

Notify Technology were advised by Sahil Nayyar at Cavu Corporate Finance, Oliver Rickett at Womble Bond Dickinson and Alistair Wilson at Azets. Calculus were advised by Ben Walmsley at Peregrine Law, Mercia were advised by Adam Rayner and Stephanie Brown at Muckle LLP.

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Notes to Editors

About Notify
https://www.notifytechnology.com

Image of the Notify Leadership Team attached

About Calculus
Calculus are pioneers of the EIS industry, having launched the UK’s first approved EIS Fund in 1999. Our focus has remained consistent: building portfolios of entrepreneurial, UK growth businesses and creating value for our investors through our multi-award winning EIS funds and VCT.

Calculus focus on the fastest growing sectors in the UK – technology, healthcare and media companies. We have been able to produce significant results for our clients via tax free dividends for our VCT investors, or tax-free capital gains for our EIS investors. We are proud to have been awarded ‘Best EIS Fund Manager’ by the EIS Association five times over.

www.calculuscapital.com


About Mercia Asset Management PLC
Mercia is a proactive, specialist asset manager focused on supporting regional SMEs to achieve their growth aspirations. Mercia provides capital across its four asset classes of balance sheet, venture, private equity and debt capital: the Group's 'Complete Connected Capital'. The Group initially nurtures businesses via its third-party funds under management, then over time Mercia can provide further funding to the most promising companies, by deploying direct investment follow-on capital from its own balance sheet.

The Group has a strong UK footprint through its regional offices, 19 university partnerships and extensive personal networks, providing it with access to high-quality deal flow. Mercia currently has c.£800million of assets under management and, since its IPO in December 2014, has invested over £96million into its direct investment portfolio. Mercia Asset Management PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic "MERC".

The Group raises its own Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Funds and details about open offers can be found through Mercia’s website.
Mercia Asset Management PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic "MERC" and includes the following wholly owned subsidiaries -
• Mercia Fund Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 524856
• Enterprise Ventures Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 183363
• EV Business Loans Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 443560

www.mercia.co.uk


About The North East Fund
The North East Fund is a suite of five venture capital and loan funds which was established in April 2018, to invest £120m in around 600 North East businesses in the period to March 2023.  The fund managers provide business development advice and investment finance to small and medium sized enterprises based in the seven Local Authority areas of North East England: Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside, Gateshead Sunderland and County Durham. The programme encourages investment in and the commercialisation of new technologies, including low carbon technologies, as well as stimulating new business creation, private investment and entrepreneurialism in the North East, with a view to creating over 2,500 new jobs.  The North East Fund has overall responsibility for the programme, which is delivered through five separate funds, each managed by independent, FCA regulated fund managers.  Details of these, and up to date information on the progress of the programme, is available on The North East Fund’s website: www.northeastfund.org

The North East Fund has been established with funding from the North East of England European Regional Development Fund programme, the European Investment Bank and from returns on previous North East based, publicly supported investment funds.  It is jointly owned by the seven North East local authorities

About the European Regional Development Fund
The North East Fund will receive up to £58,500,000 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.  The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund.  Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

About the European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will lend up to £60,000,000 to the North East Fund programme.  The European Investment Bank is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.  For more information, visit: http://www.eib.org/about/index.htm



Additional Soundbites for follow up opportunities

Long term Chair and investor, Jayne Archbold said, “I’m delighted to see Duncan and Andy secure this next round of funding. I have seen first-hand the quality of the team and the software. We’ve built a brilliant group of talented people, who all understand the importance of service, and it’s great that Calculus have come on board to help scale the business and take the opportunities in front of us.”

Gavin Disney-May, an experienced Technology investor and entrepreneur has invested alongside Calculus Capital and joins the Notify board as Non-Executive Director. Gavin said, “As investors we know that more and more organisations recognise that safety, well-being and sustainability are critical to gaining a competitive edge.

We’ve seen that Notify helps organisations deliver operational efficiencies, cultural change around safety and wellbeing, and much improved compliance. The business is well placed to harness its expertise in software and data to help provide more and more insight to their clients.

The business recently recruited Gareth Cram [from global software business Wolters Kluwer], as Chief Revenue Officer, and he will be leading the push on growing the Notify brand, developing the product strategy and expanding subscription income. Gareth Cram explains: “The digitalisation of processes across HSEQ is accelerating quickly as more and more organisations recognise the importance of embedding a culture of safety and sustainability and how technology is an enabler of this. This latest round of funding allows us to accelerate our product development in response to challenges organisations are facing whilst maintaining our strong focus on providing an extraordinary customer experience.


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About Notify

Notify Technology is an intelligent software that helps cut workplace risk and keeps your workers safer and healthier – wherever they are in the world. Already used in over 100 countries across a range of business sectors, Notify enables thousands of organisations to: Log accidents and near-miss reports in seconds Investigate and manage incidents through to resolution Track actions in real time Manage audits and inspections, and create checklists Easily create and complete risk assessments Monitor Health & Safety across the whole business Access insights 24/7


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