SafetyCulture eyes AI prize, slashes annual loss as revenue soars 30pc

One of Australia’s hottest start-ups is making inroads on becoming a household name in workplace quality and excellence.

SafetyCulture founder and CEO Luke Anear says it’s a tough environment to be raising funds but is ‘excited about the opportunities it creates for us to accelerate our growth and help even more customers’.

One of Australia’s hottest start-ups – SafetyCulture – has slashed its annual loss and sets its sights on becoming the next Canva or Atlassian as it introduces more artificial intelligence features into its products.

The workplace software company – which counts Tesla chair Robyn Denholm and Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley as directors – generated a 30 per cent surge in revenue to $160.57m in the year to June 30. Its net loss fell from $46.1m to $35.8m, marking an “inflection point”.

It comes as SafetyCulture – a rare double-unicorn – raised $75m of new capital last month, valuing it at $2.5bn – a $200m fall from when it previously raised funds in mid-2023.

Chief executive Luke Anear, who founded SafetyCulture in his garage at Townsville in 2004, said after raising the funds it was “tough environment” but he was “excited about the opportunities it creates for us to accelerate our growth and help even more customers”.

The company, which provides software for auditing and safety checks, has been focused on becoming a household name in regard to quality and excellence in the workplace. Its investors include Blackbird, AirTree, HESTA and Hostplus.

SafetyCulture founder and CEO Luke Anear.

SafetyCulture has introduced some artificial intelligence features into its products – such as mobile-first training course creation and instant inspection template generation from prompts, images, or files. But Mr Anear believes it has “only scratched the surface when it comes to transforming frontline work”.

“Few tech companies have our direct reach to frontline workers across so many different industries, so we have both a responsibility and a massive opportunity to create significant change for these people,” Mr Anear said last month.

“We’ve built the world’s largest repository of workplace data, containing over 5 petabytes of data and billions of images. AI is the way we can make sense of that information, and if we can harness it properly, we’ll effectively be able to give frontline teams superpowers that will completely change the way they work.”

Blackbird Ventures co-founder and partner Rick Baker praised SafetyCulture’s financial results, saying the company was at an “inflection point”.

“SafetyCulture has been growing consistently over the past few years and is now used by millions of people across the world, from large mining and construction companies to hospitality and retail businesses, all committed to making their businesses safer and better,” Mr Baker said.

“The company is at a true growth inflection point from the release of the new SafetyCulture platform. While SafetyCulture made its name in safety and quality, the new platform covers a wide range of tools to help front line teams work more efficiently and effectively. We’re already starting to see the product gain traction and roll out more widely across organisations.”

A SafetyCulture spokesman said it was a “huge year” for the company, with it in one of the strongest positions it has ever been in.

“We continued to make strategic investments to increase our market share and drive our global business forward,” he said.

“We’re well placed to capitalise on the opportunities ahead of us. We expect the company to remain on its strong growth trajectory as customers continue to rapidly adopt our new capabilities in training, asset management, sensors and IoT (internet of things).”

SafetyCulture’s current liabilities exceeded its current assets by $10.12m, according to accounts filed with the corporate regulator. But in his directors’ report, Mr Anear said the group had a $20m debt facility – $10m of which remains yet to be drawn – and had “sufficient cash to be able to pay its debts”.

Mr Anear attributed the deficiency in current assets, valued at $101m, to current liabilities, which were $111.1m, to contract liabilities. Contract liabilities increased to $73.26m from $55.98m in the past year, and are described in the report as an obligation to provide services to customers.

Mr Anear said they represented “upfront payments received from customers on signed sales contracts which will not result in an outflow of cash within the next 12 months”.

“In September 2024, the Company completed a C3 capital raise, bringing in $75m in additional funds,” he said.

“The directors have reviewed the group’s operating cash flows for the 12 month period following the date of the directors’ declaration and have determined that the group will have sufficient cash to be able to pay its debts as and when they fall due for a minimum of 12 months from the date of these financial statements.”

AirTree Ventures led the raising, which was the biggest initial investment the venture capital firm has made. Existing investors Blackbird and Morpheus Ventures participated in the round. Australian superannuation funds, including Hostplus and HESTA, also invested via Blackbird.

Airtree partner Kell Reilly said: “Having tracked SafetyCulture’s journey to date, now is an opportune time to join them at this inflection point. SafetyCulture has all the hallmarks of Silicon Valley’s tech heavyweights – a compelling vision, product, scale and team. We’re excited to partner with another Aussie success story that’s making waves on the global stage.”

The release of the company’s accounts comes two years after Mr Anear threatened to shift his company’s headquarters to the US in a bid to keep its financial results private, amid mounting losses and what he described as “sensationalist” reporting of its cash burn rate.

Mr Anear said at the time he wanted to re-domicile his company in the US, where competitors wouldn’t be able to easily access its financial information. But SafetyCulture has remained in Australia.

In March 2022, it opened a new headquarters in Foveaux St, Sydney, which has a state-of-the-art gym with Peloton bikes, a commercial kitchen with on-site chefs providing free breakfast and lunch, and a ‘breathing tree’ with its own active bio filtration system. The start-up is also home to Boston Dynamics’ ‘Spot’ the robotic dog, which detects temperature changes or anomalies in the workplace.

SafetyCulture also acquired SHEQSY, a cloud-based lone worker safety app, for $6m in 2022 and two months later pumped $3m into Sydney-based internet-of-things software maker Inauro. Its flagship SafetyCulture app has hundreds of thousands of paying customers globally and is an inspection checklist application for industries that require safety audits and inspections.