Herbert Smith Freehills advises SafetyCulture on A$165 million Series C3 capital raise

The round was led by AirTree Ventures and joined by existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Morpheus Partners. This new capital will be employed to fund the continued rapid growth and expansion of the company as it continues to evolve from a checklist app into an operates platform for working teams.

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by partner Claire Thompson and senior associate Adam Ong, with support from solicitors Spandan Das and Alice Berkeley, working across the firm’s Melbourne and Brisbane offices.

Claire Thompson, partner and Co-Head of Venture Capital (Australia), said, “Herbert Smith Freehills is proud of our long-standing relationship with SafetyCulture, having now supported the company through multiple capital raising transactions. It is fantastic to see a capital raising transaction of this magnitude executed and it is a testament to the quality of the SafetyCulture business that it has been able to achieve such a significant transaction in the current market”.

John Blake, SafetyCulture's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, said, “We loved working with the HSF team on this transaction. Their advice and innovative solutions have helped us to achieve a great outcome. They are at the very top of the market”.

Peter Dunne, SafetyCulture's Head of Corporate Development and Company Secretary said, “This was an intense transaction, Claire's leadership and calm demeanour was brilliant".

The funding round follows the launch of SafetyCulture’s workplace operations platform in October 2023, which introduced new capabilities in training, asset management, sensors and IoT functionality. With 85,000 businesses and close to 2 million users around the world now using SafetyCulture, customers are continuing to embrace the platform and roll it out to more of their teams. 

The company has seen record growth in sign-ups, and its average customer has doubled in size over the last two years. SafetyCulture has added 100 new roles over the past six months, with more than 800 employees now working from its six offices around the world, to support its accelerating global growth and track towards its ambitious target of reaching 100 million users by 2032.

This capital raise continues Herbert Smith Freehills’ long partnership with SafetyCulture, with the firm having previously acted on SafetyCulture’s Series B, Series C1, follow-on Series C1 and Series C2 capital raises. Herbert Smith Freehills has also previously assisted SafetyCulture with its growth strategy by advising on the acquisition of SHEQSY, a cloud-based lone worker safety app.

This deal is another example of Herbert Smith Freehills’ market-leading work in Australian venture capital raisings in the emerging tech sector. Other recent examples include:

• Constantinople on its A$50 million Series A capital raise and A$32 million Series Seed capital raise
• Deputy Group on its A$111 million Series B capital raise and its strategic investments from Xero and Express Employment Professionals
• Mr Yum on its A$89 million Series A capital raise and merger with me&u
• Culture Amp on its A$120 million Series E capital raise and A$135 million Series F capital raise and secondary sale
• Linktree on its US10.7M capital raise in 2020, its US$45M capital raise in 2021 and its US$110M capital raise in 2022