SafetyCulture raises $45.5M Series C funding round

SafetyCulture, an Australia-based firm whose North American headquarters is located in Kansas City, announced a huge funding round Monday to advance its tech platform focused on workplace safety.

The tech firm raised a $45.5 million Series C round led by New York investment firm Tiger Global Management. Other investors include previous backers, including Blackbird Ventures, Index Ventures, Morpheus Ventures and Scott Farquhar.

The funding round brings the company’s total raise to $74 million and is its valuation to more than $330 million

The funding will allow the company to accelerate big hiring plans across the globe — including in the U.S. — as well as raise general awareness, said Luke Anear, CEO of SafetyCulture.

“SafetyCulture is expanding at a breakneck pace. In the last year alone, over 100 new staff were hired to support the company’s growth,” Anear said. “However, most of the world doesn’t know we exist; they’ve never heard of SafetyCulture. This funding means that we can continue to build great products, better serve more customers and have a bigger impact on safety and quality for workers all around the world.”

SafetyCulture’s tech tools aim to curb the roughly 5,700 workplace injuries that occur each day on average across the world. SafetyCulture created a variety of mobile tools to help companies digitize safety processes, checks and inspections, as well as improve communication and collect better data.

More than 15,000 construction, hospitality, manufacturing, retail and logistics firms in about 150 countries use SafetyCulture’s platform, the company reports. SafetyCulture staff has spiked from 85 employees in 2017 to 214 employees in 2018 across its offices in Kansas City, Sydney, Townsville, Australia, Manchester and Manila.

SafetyCulture announced in February that it relocated its North American office from San Francisco to Kansas City and that it plans to embark on an ambitious hiring plan in the area. The company plans to quadruple its staff from 15 to 60 people at its Plexpod Westport Commons office in the next year.

The huge Series C round will allow the company to reach its global growth goals, Anear said.

“The North American market currently makes up over 30 percent of our customers, serviced from our U.S. base in Kansas City,” Anear said. “Such a significant injection of capital enables us to invest in the talent and marketing needed to continue to grow as a truly global company. This is an exciting time in SafetyCulture’s history. We have only built one percent of what our customers need. We reached 15,000 companies with minimal sales or marketing, and now it’s time to take SafetyCulture to the rest of the world.”