BGF has made a £15m investment in Sulmara, an independent provider of survey and inspection services to the offshore wind and energy markets.
BGF’s investment will support Sulmara’s continued growth trajectory, including further investment in new technologies such as uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), next generation geophysical sensors and advanced data products.
The ability to use these advanced systems both alongside and with traditional survey vessels supports improved high-quality data turnaround time while significantly reducing the environmental impact of offshore projects.
Glasgow-headquartered Sulmara was founded in 2019 and has grown rapidly, with revenue delivering a compound annual growth rate of 61% over the last four years, and it is building a global footprint with offices in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Norwich, Houston, Singapore and Taipei.
The company said its rapid growth and success to date has come from using expertise and technology to provide more efficient survey services with a lower carbon footprint to a wide range of global clients.
The business was the first services company in the offshore wind sector to be a signatory to the Climate Pledge and has recently achieved independently verified Carbon Neutrality status against the BSI PAS 2060:2014 standard, it added.
Sulmara said it is already delivering benefits for major customers around the world including Orsted, Chevron and Seaway7 using remote & innovative systems, and BGF’s investment will enable further complex and low carbon data collection in environments that pose a huge challenge to conventional methodologies.
As part of BGF’s investment, Richard Pugh and Davis Larssen will join the board as non-executive directors.
Both Pugh and Larssen bring many years’ experience leading and investing in energy services and technology businesses.
Sulmara founder and chief executive Kevin McBarron (pictured) said: “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.”
Pugh added: “Working closely with Kevin, Mike, Davis and the rest of the management team, we look forward to supporting the next stage in Sulmara’s exciting growth journey.”