Scottish Investment Bank supports Bellrock's £600k funding deal

The company’s proprietary Lumen^® platform uniquely enables utility clients to take better operational decisions in the face of multimillion-pound industry challenges such as equipment fault prediction, performance improvement and life extension. It delivers specialist data analytics from expert developers directly to industry decision makers, letting them control and personalise their support. Lumen^® ensures that cutting-edge software can be rapidly tested, evaluated and implemented in operational settings with minimal software integration time and costs.

The company, a spin out from the University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Energy and Environment, has identified applications for its Lumen^® platform in a range of other industries such as oil and gas, manufacturing and transport, as well as utility clients in overseas markets. The University’s support since the company was launched in 2012 has been important to Bellrock and has extended to a further equity investment in this round.

The funding round was led by specialist investor ESM Investments. ESM invests in high growth Scottish technology companies with international potential. The ESM syndicate is geographically widespread and brings extensive experience to Bellrock in terms of market entry, sales channel development, identifying and protecting IP and deal-making. The Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, has matched the investment from ESM, following earlier support from its Financial Readiness team in July 2014. Bellrock has also secured investment from several senior UK utility executives.

Adam Brown, Managing Director commented “This is an exciting new phase of growth for Bellrock, having attracted experienced investors, knowledgeable in both our current and target markets”.

Steven Morris, founder and CEO of ESM investments commented “Bellrock Technology is now ready to commercialise its products and services and ESM are excited to be part of the journey thus far. We see great potential in the product and the team and in the new investors that are already collaborating to drive Bellrock forward“.

The company’s proprietary technology was based on world-leading research led by Professor Stephen McArthur at the University of Strathclyde in the Institute for Energy and Environment. Stuart Mackenzie, Commercialisation Infrastructure Manager at the University said “The University of Strathclyde is delighted at the progress made by Bellrock Technology since the founders won the Converge Challenge in 2011 and spun out the company in 2012. Bellrock has made substantial progress in identifying relevant market opportunities and in building out the technical platform to meet highly demanding operational regimes. The University has been investing in its high growth spin out companies since 2012, and participation in the Bellrock funding round brings the total Strathclyde investment in these companies to over £1m”.

Kerry Sharp Head of the Scottish Investment Bank commented “Bellrock Technology is an ambitious company with a strong appetite for growth. Scottish Enterprise works intensively with its management team to support this growth ambition helping in areas such as financial readiness, innovation and leadership development. This latest support, through our Scottish Co-investment Fund, will help to shape the company’s international strategy and position it well for the next phase of its journey as it prepares to commercialise its products and services”.