Global expansion on the horizon for mapping technology firm

With a wealth of experience in the commercialisation of early stage technologies, Shelley has been involved in the recruitment of a new executive team at GeoSLAM over the last year and will focus on developing new and existing scalable products and solutions.

This includes the recent launch of GeoSLAM’s next generation in handheld scanners, the ZEB-HORIZON, which is capable of rapidly capturing intricate indoor and outdoor measurements from up to 100m away.

GeoSLAM Labs will be led by the company’s founder, Graham Hunter, with the aim of expanding its research and development capabilities to rapidly build and bring to market new sensing technologies and geospatial analytics platforms – in addition to constant innovation being a core activity throughout the GeoSLAM business.

The significant growth vision for the company is also supported by the cash injection provided by Frontier Development Capital and Clydesdale Bank, to build on the recent merger with 3D Laser Mapping and further evolve GeoSLAM’s 3D mobile mapping and monitoring technology.

Shelley joins after holding a position on the GeoSLAM board since July 2017, as part of her role as head of New Ventures and Commercialisation at Australian research and engineering business Data61, part of CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), where GeoSLAM is a portfolio company.

Shelley explained why she was so excited to join the GeoSLAM team. She said:

“Taking on this position at such an important period of the company’s growth and incorporating the best assets of 3D Laser Mapping to drive our future success is a huge honour and I see immense opportunity for the merged businesses.

“I want to keep data capture and analysis at the core of the business, with a focus on increasing our understanding of how our customers use this information and creating solutions to solve their problems. GeoSLAM has the perfect mix of amazing people with a huge amount of talent and market-leading assets, so I’m really looking forward to leading the firm’s expansion into new and existing markets across the world.”

Graham Hunter, founder of GeoSLAM and leader of its newly created GeoSLAM Labs, added that he was looking forward to supporting the company’s next phase of growth. He explained:

“It’s great to welcome Shelley as our new CEO. Her contribution as a board member, including her insight into the unique geospatial problems that we can solve, convinced us that she is the best person to lead GeoSLAM during this next stage of growth. She understands how we can innovate on our core assets to grow our business, and how focused effort will enable us to bring new game changing innovations to market. Shelley has a proven track record at scaling businesses just like ours and the whole team is already 100% behind her.

“Our research and development capability, which exists both in our core business and within GeoSLAM Labs, will enable us to enhance our technology offerings looking at the solutions of the future. These innovation initiatives are key to remaining the market leader in 3D mapping and insight and I look forward to working together to scale the business for its next stage of growth.”

GeoSLAM was advised by Richard Siddall and Richard Davies in PwC’s Debt & Capital Advisory team with £5.4million of funding being provided to the business from Clydesdale Bank (£4.0million) and Frontier Development Capital (£1.4million).

Richard Davies, Senior Manager, said: “The facilities that have been put in place are testament to both the strength of the management team and growth potential for the business, we are delighted to have supported them in securing this funding platform.”

Commenting on the deal, David Burgess, Director for Business Development, Corporate and Structured Finance at Clydesdale Bank, said:

“GeoSLAM are the world leader in mobile mapping technologies and more and more industries are now at the tipping point of adopting laser mobile mapping as standard equipment. GeoSLAM is well-placed to take full advantage of this growing trend.

“We are keen to provide funding for SMEs operating in the technology sector and GeoSLAM is a good example of the type of innovative, high-growth firm we want to support. With the backing of a talented leadership team, we are looking forward to helping the firm continue its upwards trajectory.”

Ondrej Okeke, Investment Director at Frontier Development Capital, added:

“GeoSLAM is pushing the boundaries in laser mapping and monitoring technology. We are backing a very strong management team with considerable experience in developing technology and bringing innovative new products to market both domestically and overseas.

“By providing this finance alongside Clydesdale Bank, we are supporting the rapid growth of GeoSLAM as it delivers improvements to its R&D capabilities and launches new laser mapping and monitoring products.”

More details on mapping and monitoring solutions from GeoSLAM are available at www.geoslam.com.