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Native VC Blackbird and different early stage buyers in SafetyCulture look set for a second chew of the exit cherry as the corporate turns 20 subsequent 12 months, with as much as $500 million price of current shares being supplied on the market to buyers greater than three years after shareholders within the privately-owned enterprise final offloaded stakes
The gross sales comes after firm, finest recognized for its worksite security guidelines app, raised $34 million an a $2.7 billion valuation, a $600 million improve on 27 months in the past when the Sydney-headquartered enterprise raised $95 millionat $2.1 billion.
Previous to that, SafetyCulture raised $49 million in October 2020 so employees and buyers can money in on the unicorn’s progress. Since then it has greater than doubled in worth. Discussions on the sale of worker shares are anticipated to start this week.
The newest $34 million provides Sydney fund Marbruck Investments to the cap desk alongside long-term buyers Morpheus Ventures and Index Ventures, the latter writing its first cheque in 2016 when the corporate was price simply $160 million.
Blackbird first invested this time eight years in the past in a $6.1 million Sequence A at a $50 million valuation. With its first fund coming to the tip of its life after a decade, the VC is now in search of the exits for its unlisted holdings, having not too long ago offered down a few of its Canva stake for $150 million.
Lately, the enterprise has been in acquisition mode, spending $6 million on distant employee security app SHEQSY and $3 million final 12 months for knowledge and IoT startup Inauro in June.
Founder and budding Hollywood mogul Luke Anear has additionally been busy producing a pay-for-view 4-part documentary collection on Australian startup founders, that includes himself, in addition to Canva’s Melanie Perkins, Brighte’s Katherine McConnell and Finder’s Fred Schebesta.
Whereas there’s nonetheless no signal of SafetyCulture heading to a public itemizing, in November final 12 months, Anear, the CEO, threatened to register the enterprise as a US company “inside the subsequent month or two” due to Australia’s firm submitting legal guidelines, complaining that the principles additionally gave abroad opponents an unfair benefit.
“Within the US, firms can stay non-public till they publicly record. It’s no marvel that Canva and others are domiciled there, and now we’re trying to relocate there too,” he mentioned.
The newest $34 million elevate was revealed in firm filings quite than through the corporate’s PR agency, which has been busy of late selling the documentary collection.
Anear mentioned on the time that the enterprise “will proceed to put up a loss for the following 5 years or extra” including that “it’s unrealistic to anticipate to show a revenue early when you’re investing in product improvement and buying clients in all places.”
The enterprise was based in 2004.
By March this 12 months, Anear had shifted that narrative, telling the AFR that: “We’ve shifted the enterprise again from a progress mode to being worthwhile. It means we now have infinite runway” and didn’t actually need ongoing VC funding.
“We’re not depending on exterior funding in an effort to proceed to construct the enterprise and develop,” he mentioned.
If true, the present spherical would look like designed to bump up the worth of SafetyCulture inventory by round 25% forward of shareholders in search of consumers on the secondary market.
SafetyCulture has been contacted for remark.
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