BGF, a leading equity investor, has committed £15 million to Sulmara, a Glasgow-based provider of survey and inspection services for offshore wind and energy markets.
Sulmara, founded in 2019, has grown to more than £55.8 million in annual revenue, delivering a compound annual growth rate of 61% over the last 4 years, and building a global footprint with offices in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Norwich, Houston, Singapore and Taipei.
BGF said that its investment will go towards supporting Sulmara’s continued growth trajectory, including backing for new technologies such as uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), next generation geophysical sensors, and advanced data products.
These systems will work both alongside traditional survey vessels, supporting improved high-quality data turnaround time while significantly reducing the environmental impact of offshore projects.
Using remote technology, the Glasgow firm provides more efficient survey services with a lower carbon footprint, with the business being the first services company in the offshore wind sector to be a signatory to the Climate Pledge, and recently achieved independently verified Carbon Neutrality status against the BSI PAS 2060:2014 standard.
With BGF’s investment, the company plans to increase capacity for further complex and low carbon data collection in environments that pose challenges to conventional methods.
“BGF’s investment comes at an important moment for the company as we look to build on the success of our technology and innovation efforts to date and to accelerate their introduction to our service offerings,” said Kevin McBarron, founder and CEO of Sulmara.
“This significant investment of growth capital is a vote of confidence in our strategy from an established investment partner in BGF.
“We now look forward to investing further in the technology that will allow us to deliver world-class services to support the entire offshore energy sector at a lower carbon cost.”
As part of BGF’s investment, Richard Pugh and Davis Larssen will join the board as non-executive directors, with both bringing years of experience from the energy services and technology sectors.
“Offshore renewables and their adjacent technologies have an increasingly important role in decarbonising our energy, and an area Scotland has world leading expertise,” said Pugh.
“Sulmara’s growth in the last 3-4 years is evidence of both the quality of their operations as well as the ability of Kevin and his team to deliver for clients while also building a truly global business.”
According to BGF, the equity firm claims to have backed over six hundred companies across a variety of investment stages, sectors and regions, with a balance sheet of £3 billion and over 200 exits completed.
That makes BGF the most active equity investor in the UK and Ireland, with the firm being named the UK’s most active institutional investor in female-founded scaleups for four years running.