UK firm gets multimillion-dollar shot in the arm to pursue tech advancement

Scotland-headquartered offshore survey and inspection services specialist Sulmara has secured a multimillion-dollar investment from BGF, a growth capital investor in the UK and Ireland. This will enable the firm to bankroll its technological growth ambitions in the offshore energy arena, where it is eyeing opportunities in renewables.

BGF’s $18.9 million, or £15 million, investment in Sulmara is expected to drive the Glasgow-headquartered business’ continued growth trajectory, including its planned investment in new technologies, such as uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), next-generation geophysical sensors and advanced data products.

According to the Scottish player, using these advanced systems alongside and with traditional survey vessels supports improved high-quality data turnaround time while significantly reducing the environmental impact of offshore projects.

Kevin McBarron, Founder and CEO of Sulmara, commented: “BGF’s investment comes at an important moment for the company as we look to build on the success of our technology and innovation efforts to date and to accelerate their introduction to our service offerings. This significant investment of growth capital is a vote of confidence in our strategy from an established investment partner in BGF.

“The international growth and breadth of services now delivered demonstrates that our approach is also resonating with our clients and supports their need to reduce Scope 3 emissions as the path to NetZero matures. We now look forward to investing further in the technology that will allow us to deliver world-class services to support the entire offshore energy sector at a lower carbon cost.”

Given its mission to provide survey services with a lower carbon footprint, Sulmara’s list of customers includes Orsted, Chevron, and Seaway7. BGF’s investment is anticipated to enable further complex and low-carbon data collection in environments that pose a challenge to conventional methodologies.

Following its inception in 2019, the firm’s annual revenue has risen to more than $70 million (£55.8 million), delivering a compound annual growth rate of 61% over the last four years with offices in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Norwich, Houston, Singapore, and Taipei.

The Scottish business claimed to have been the first services company in the offshore wind sector to be a signatory to the Climate Pledge, recently achieving independently verified carbon neutrality status. As part of BGF’s investment, Richard Pugh and Davis Larssen will join the board as non-executive directors.

Pugh underscored: “Offshore renewables and their adjacent technologies have an increasingly important role in decarbonising our energy, and an area Scotland has world leading expertise. Sulmara’s growth in the last 3-4 years is evidence of both the quality of their operations as well as the ability of Kevin and his team to deliver for clients while also building a truly global business.”

The investment comes a few months after Sulmara got hold of funding from the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) to develop an over-the-horizon (OTH) uncrewed surface vessel with the ability to launch and recover towed sensor packages.