BGF, one of the UK’s most active growth capital investors, has invested £4 million into double Queen’s award-winner, DriveWorks.
The Warrington-headquartered company works with manufacturing and engineering businesses to provide innovative design automation and 3D sales product configuration software solutions.
DriveWorks was co-founded by CEO Glen Smith and VP Maria Sarkar in 2001 with the creation of DriveWorks software as a design tool to automate Solidworks. Currently it is used by thousands of customers across 47 countries and a wide variety of industry verticals.
BGF’s funding will support continued investment in technology to accelerate growth and position the business to address the significant market demand for customised 3D product visualisation in an increasingly virtual world.
Commenting on the deal, co-founders Glen Smith and Maria Sarkar, said: “Our company is built on innovative technology, high standards and above all else the quality and commitment of our people to our customer base and channel partners.
“With BGF’s support, we have an opportunity to build on our growth with continued investment in our software and focus on international expansion into new and existing markets. We’ve been impressed with BGF and their expertise in supporting the scale-up of technology businesses in our sector which will be key to achieving our ambitions for DriveWorks.”
Harry Jones from BGF originated and led the deal. He said: “DriveWorks is an excellent business with unique and world-leading technology which has significant global potential to help manufacturing companies generate more sales whilst also driving efficiencies in their production processes.
“We have also been impressed by the founders’ commitment to their team and investing in talent within the business which gives a strong cultural alignment between our organisations.
“All of these elements, combined with our support, investment and attractive sector fundamentals, mean DriveWorks is primed to scale its operations.”
“This is a sector BGF knows well having previously backed Solid Solutions – the UK’s largest reseller of Solidworks, in 2016 which more than tripled revenues through significant organic and acquisitive growth over a four-year period before a successful exit last year.”
From a personal point of view, it’s great to see Driveworks gaining this sort of investment to push its growth. I’ve been watching the work that Glen, Maria and their team have done since I first met CEO Glen when he was pitching design automation at a vehicle manufacturer long back in the midst of time.
And yes, it’s good to see a UK founded company achieve this level of success on a truly global scale.
