Airbox to use £1.5m investment to help frontline emergency services

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TBM Team

Airbox Systems, the leading situational awareness tool designed to streamline operational responses for emergency services, has secured a £1.5 million loan from the alternative lender BOOST&Co to support its goal of doubling in size during the next 12 months.

The firm, based in Wantage, Oxfordshire, has revolutionised how emergency services respond by helping teams to visualise their environments and share data in live situations. The software, which is used globally as well as in the UK, is deployed during high-pressure events – for example, to guide rescue helicopters to the correct location or to create maps of evolving riots that can direct officers to where they need to be. Airbox mapping, used by the Cabinet Office to enable 80,000 first responders through its free-to-use system ResilienceDirect, helps trained responders to evaluate complex situations.

BOOST&Co has provided the business with a £1.5m term loan under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). Having made a significant contribution to improving emergency responses during the Covid-19 pandemic, Airbox Systems will now prioritise the continued growth of its team and the expansion of its operations.

BOOST&Co is a leading provider of growth capital for innovative, fast-growing UK SMEs. The independent asset manager offers loans from £2m to £10m, covering a wide range of sectors, with a strong track record in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT). It has funded more than £500m across more than 130 deals to date and provided close to £200m under the government’s CBILS initiative to support UK SMEs during the pandemic.

William Moore, chief executive at Airbox Systems, says: "Airbox is all about helping the emergency services to protect life. This funding will enable us to more than double the 50,000 operations conducted with Airbox every year, which is a fantastic outcome for us as a business and, I hope, for the general public too. The support from BOOST&Co means that we can make our growth ambitions a reality, and we are looking forward to building on this new partnership as we continue to expand."

Faye McDonough (pictured), Cambridge-based principal at BOOST&Co, says: "The Airbox team is passionate about facilitating collaboration across the emergency response sector and this came across in all of our interactions. They dominate a number of their existing markets with their game-changing products, but they want to do more. This investment will enable the business to scale, providing the growth capital it needs to expand its team and take advantage of its current momentum and new business opportunities. Airbox is a fantastic addition to BOOST&Co’s portfolio."