LONDON, 26 April 2018: Foresight Group (“Foresight”) announces the £1.68 million investment from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund (“the Fund”) into Geospatial Insight (the “Company”).
Geospatial Insight is a leading provider of satellite imagery analysis for the insurance, investment and corporate sectors. Their product combines satellite imagery with video, positioning and commercial data and provides qualitative and quantitative analysis to produce actionable business intelligence tailored specifically to their clients. The Company also provides loss estimation and claims analysis services to the insurance sector.
Established in 2012 by industry experts Dave Fox (CEO), Dan Schnurr (CIO), Adrian Watson (CFO) and Paul Fearn (CTO), a team that has worked together for more than 20 years in the sector, Geospatial Insight currently has 28 employees and plans to hire additional developers to expand its machine learning capabilities as well as specialist business development staff.
Alongside the Fund’s investment, Geospatial Insight will benefit from the investment management and growth experience from Foresight’s team of investment professionals. In addition, the Company will benefit from the link to Williams Advanced Engineering (“Williams”) who are well-equipped to help accelerate the development of Geospatial Insight’s machine learning capabilities. The Company’s focus will continue to be on the creation of scalable information products, delivered by proprietary machine learning software, enabling significant reductions in labour costs and greater overall capacity.
John Holden, Principal, Foresight said: “We are delighted to be backing this experienced and capable team. Since the company’s foundation in 2012, they have established a strong market position and our investment will support further product development and a growing customer base. The Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund has had a busy and successful start to 2018 and we look forward to the rest of the year with more deals in the pipeline.”
Craig Wilson, Managing Director, Williams Advanced Engineering, said: “Williams is pleased to be entering into this new partnership agreement with Geospatial Insight and to have the opportunity to be involved in enhancing its valuable business intelligence service offerings within a growing market.”
Dave Fox, CEO, Geospatial Insight said: “We are delighted to receive investment from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund. During the next 12 months we will be strengthening our machine learning expertise and developing new customer propositions that better inform enterprise decision making. By doing so we will also further extend our unique expertise and solidify our position as market leaders in intelligence derived from satellite, aerial and drone imagery.”
This is the Fund’s fourth investment, following investments into Southampton-based Utonomy, a ground-breaking intelligent gas grid solutions provider; Codeplay, an Edinburgh-based software developer and software consultancy business involved in Heterogeneous Systems and The Salford Valve Company (“Salvalco”), a manufacturer of innovative ecologically sustainable aerosol valves (“Eco-Valves”).
ENDS
For more information contact:
Ben Thompson, Foresight Group, bthompson@foresightgroup.eu | +44 (0)20 3667 8155
Matthew Knowles, Williams Advanced Engineering, matthew.knowles@williamsf1.com |+44 (0)1235 604 364
Clare Tucker, Geospatial Insight, clare.tucker@geospatial-insight.com | +44 (0)20 3318 3041
NOTES FOR EDITORS
More information on Geospatial Insight is available at www.geospatial-insight.com
About Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund
Foresight and Williams announced the unique collaboration represented by the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund in November 2016. It combines the Williams Advanced Engineering team’s expertise with Foresight’s successful investment track record.
The Fund enables investors to qualify for relief under the UK Government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (“EIS”) for investment into early stage UK SMEs with strong intellectual property in their own specialist fields.
The Fund plans to make investments of up to £2 million into at least ten qualifying UK SMEs, supporting the next generation of engineering technology success stories in the UK.
http://www.foresightwilliams.co.uk/
About Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”):
Foresight is a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager which has been managing investment funds on behalf of institutions and retail clients for more than 30 years.
Foresight has £2.8 billion of Assets Under Management across a number of funds, including Listed Vehicles, Limited Partnerships, Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs), Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and Inheritance Tax Solutions using Business Property Relief (BPR)
Foresight’s Private Equity team, comprising 22 investment professionals, invests between £100k and £5m in management buy-outs, management buy-ins and growth capital investments in UK SMEs.
Foresight is an appointed equity fund manager for the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), as the British Business Bank launched £100 million of equity funding for the region, as part of the wider £250 million Midlands Engine programme. Foresight will make equity investments of between c.£100k and £2m in growing small and medium sized businesses across the East and South-East Midlands.
Foresight is headquartered in London with regional UK offices in Manchester, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Leicester and Guernsey and international offices in Sydney, Rome, Seoul and San Francisco.
About Williams Advanced Engineering
Williams Advanced Engineering Limited operates a technology and engineering services business and is part of the Williams Group.
In 2010, Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited began diversifying its operations, leading to the establishment of the Williams Advanced Engineering division, which has now become Williams Advanced Engineering Limited. Combining cutting edge technology and the industry’s best engineers with precision and speed to market derived from four decades of success in the ultra-competitive environment of Formula One, Williams Advanced Engineering provides world class technical innovation, engineering, testing, manufacturing and operational consultancy services to the automotive, motorsport, aerospace, defence, health and energy sectors. Working in close collaboration with its customers, Williams Advanced Engineering helps meet the sustainability challenges of the 21st century and improve performance, with its expertise in aerodynamics and thermodynamics, electrification, advanced lightweight materials and vehicle integration.
For more information see www.williamsf1.com/advanced-engineering, follow us on Twitter @WilliamsAdvEng or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/williams-advanced-engineering.
