- Waterspring Ventures and The Development Bank of Wales announce a £480k co-investment into Operati Limited
- Operati Limited offers a first-of-its-kind software solution to help small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses streamline production for bespoke products
- The investment is Waterspring Ventures’ first, following its establishment in 2021 aiming to address the acute shortfall of funding available for Wales and South West-based early-stage companies
01 AUGUST 2023: Waterspring Ventures, an award-winning early-stage venture capital firm based in Wales, today announces its first investment into Operati Limited, which has built the first Software as a Service (SaaS) estimating solution of its kind for the SME market.
Waterspring Ventures is investing £280k of its first tranche into the business. It has partnered with The Development Bank of Wales for the deal, which is investing £150k from the Technology Seed Fund, whilst the founders of Operati Limited have also invested £50k.
Operati’s mission to help manufacturing SMEs
Small and medium-sized businesses that make ‘install-to-order’ or ‘make-to-order’ products struggle to configure and estimate complex products, plan and manage production, and effectively capture costs and profit due to products’ bespoke nature.
Currently, the software solutions that exist to streamline this process are not affordable for small businesses that do not have the budget or time to implement a business-wide software package. Smaller ‘SME’ focused solutions also tend to focus entirely on repeatable production, rather than bespoke products. Those specialising in the business’s niche areas can lead to data duplication and a lack of visibility for decision-makers.
David James, CEO, Operati Limited discusses the investment: “Our mission at Operati is to offer a completely new approach, creating the first SaaS estimating solution of its kind on the SME market. With a cloud-based end-to-end system built from the ground up specifically for bespoke products and projects, our focus is entirely on meeting customers’ needs. We are providing the industry with a much-needed all-in-one estimating and quoting solution, giving access to the latest sales intelligence technology to help SMEs boost their businesses.”
Sam Huxtable, Founder and Managing Partner, Waterspring Ventures says: “We established Waterspring Ventures in 2021 with the mission to address the acute shortfall of funding available for early-stage UK companies, especially businesses in Wales and the South West.
“As a Newport-based company operating in the High Value Manufacturing space, Operati really fitted the bill for our first investment. The company knows exactly what problem it needs to solve in the manufacturing industry – and it’s one that our Partners, who have over 25 years of experience in the sector, know all too well. We’re excited to work alongside the Operati team and the Development Bank of Wales to see the business develop in the coming months.”
Matthew Wilde, Investment Executive at the Development Bank of Wales says: “We are incredibly pleased to have joined Waterspring in making this investment into Operati – they’re a fantastic example of a Welsh tech venture making huge, innovative strides and providing the bespoke systems and intelligence which SMEs need.
“We were confident in the expertise and potential in the team at Operati, having invested in their former company Hudman in the summer of 2016. We’re delighted to see them progress into a new venture, and were especially pleased to take advantage of the opportunity to work alongside Waterspring Ventures when backing them.”
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About Waterspring Ventures
Waterspring Ventures was established in 2021 by a group of entrepreneurs, investors, and advisors who have witnessed first-hand how difficult it is for early-stage UK businesses to raise funding, particularly those based in the UK regions. The venture capital firm is on a mission to help rebalance this regional funding mismatch, aiming to create a fairer version of venture capital.
Waterspring invests in early-stage UK companies with strong potential to create high productivity, high wage, highly skilled jobs in local communities across the UK. It invests between £100-£500k in EIS eligible businesses with a revenue of £100k-£1m.
Waterspring Ventures Limited ‘Waterspring’ is a limited company registered in England and Wales (Company Number 13734175). Waterspring is an Appointed Representative of The Fund Incubator Limited (FRN 208716) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
About Operati Limited
Operati was established in 2021 and reunites the team responsible for the award-winning cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system ‘Hudman Central ERP’, which was acquired by software giant Advanced in 2017. Operati aims to provide powerful project planning, quoting, and reporting tools that solve the complex issues faced by modern manufacturing and installation firms in the SME space.
We don’t just aim to make the complex simple, we aim to make it affordable.
Operati Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 13775881.
About The Development Bank of Wales
The Development Bank of Wales puts Wales’s potential at the heart of its decision-making.
It funds businesses which it thinks will benefit Wales and its people – the ones that are more than a good business model or a great idea. It finances responsible businesses – those with strong social, ethical and environmental standards, as well as real commercial promise.
By providing sustainable, effective finance, where options have seemed limited, it brings ambitions to life and fuels possibilities for people, businesses and communities in Wales and beyond.
https://developmentbank.wales/
