21 January 2015
A Birmingham company which provides information and intelligence to clients via aerial and satellite imagery has attracted investment of more than £300,000 from venture capital specialist Midven.
Geospatial Insight Limited uses expert analysis of imaging data to give companies an “information edge” over their competitors.
Their services can provide clients in the Finance and Insurance sectors with ground-breaking independent research in areas such as risk analysis, investment evaluation, asset monitoring, and event impact assessment, delivering those clients a distinctive competitive advantage.
The investment of £302,000 through Midven’s Exceed Fund will help Geospatial Insight recruit new staff and provide development capital to exploit further opportunities in their sector.
The company sources data from several partner suppliers, including satellite imagery and aerial imagery, and once acquired expertly interpret it. This interpretation can help clients better understand risk and manage it accordingly, can help support investment decisions, monitor and map assets, measure competitor performance and market share, as well as providing the rapid delivery of data following a major catastrophe event such as flooding.
Geospatial Insight Managing Director David Fox said: “We are at a stage where we need to recruit additional, experienced personnel to help grow the market and carry out the extra work as the business grows. The areas in which we operate, such as the finance and insurance sectors, are both potentially very large markets for us, and this investment will help us develop the opportunities that we have identified in what is potentially a very fruitful pipeline.”
John Slaughter, Investment Executive at Midven, said: “Geospatial Insight is Europe’s only provider of this sort of intelligence, and boasts a strong management team with a wealth of experience in the geospatial industry.
“The recruitment of additional technical expertise will allow the company to take on several projects at once and move efficiency on to new levels. A number of new business opportunities have been clearly identified and they are ideally placed, with this investment, to exploit these.”
About Midven/Exceed
Midven Limited is a privately owned commercial fund manager with a successful track record of investing in small and medium-sized enterprises in the Midlands. Midven manages five funds representing £74m under management. The funds have invested in a wide variety of sectors, including software, biotechnology, healthcare, engineering, manufacturing and distribution.
The £18.4m Exceed Fund was established in December 2009 to invest in high growth businesses in the West Midlands. It became operational in March 2010 when LDC became an investor in the Fund. The Exceed Fund can invest up to £750,000 in a range of sectors to support expansion and development. Managed by Midven, its investors include Lloyds Development Capital, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the European Regional Development Fund.