The company behind a wearable safety solution, which helps to improve the safety of railway staff and prevent avoidable incidents, has raised £2m from Praetura Ventures and Blackfinch Ventures, as it aims to expand into new sectors and global markets.
Lincoln-based Tended has created an innovative geospatial positioning device to alert rail workers when they exit designated safe zones, allowing them to maintain a safe distance from onsite hazards, such as open lines and in-use heavy machinery.
Train companies are often fined millions for track deaths and near misses. And while near misses are at record lows, they do still occur, with 22 taking place in the 23/24 fiscal year, according to the Rail Safety and Standards Board’s latest Annual Health and Safety Report.
To improve safety across the board, Tended, which has recently secured a seven-figure contract with Network Rail, uses rail industry geospatial data to generate positioning information with a high level of precision. This replaces traditional and unscalable ways of ensuring worker safety, including paper-based diagrams and verbal briefings.
Another major customer is Siemens Mobility, which has been working with Tended for the past two years and is now embedding Tended’s geofencing technology nationally into its business-as-usual processes. The tech giant has also been working with Tended to develop new functionality that will play an integral role in worksite management.
Tended’s technology can issue an alert within 0.25 seconds, giving workers adequate time to move out of harm’s way or respond to a potential danger, mitigating the risk of potential injury or fines. The company’s solution also provides rail companies with asset tracking, providing a bird’s eye view of their worksites that makes it easier to identify and correct unsafe activities before they become incidents.
The £2m round has been led by Praetura’s EIS Growth Fund, with Tended also raising money from its existing investor Blackfinch Ventures and angel investors. The funding will be used to strengthen the business’ IP portfolio, release the next generation of its wearable device and increase its headcount across sales and engineering.
Praetura partner Andy Barrow joins Tended’s board, alongside Ijaz Khan from Blackfinch Ventures. Together, Andy and Ijaz bring key experience including from other board positions across software businesses in their growth phase.
Since raising the investment, Tended has also begun its expansion into Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands, with the business working alongside influential leaders within the rail sector – including Irish Rail and Translink – to digitise worksites and put safety at the forefront.
