A Worcestershire-based vehicle safety specialist has been backed by a “significant investment” from private equity firm YFM to supercharge its future expansion.
Innovative Safety Systems in Pershore, was founded in 2009 by chief executive Gavin Thoday and now employs 31 people.
Through the deployment of multiple hardware products to commercial vehicles, ISS supports an improvement in driving standards and enables fleet managers to have increased visibility over their vehicles.
Thoday said: “ISS has grown significantly over recent years, driven by a number of ambitious innovations, delivering value enhancing solutions for our customers.
“As we seek to further develop pioneering new software projects that will provide fleet operators with a genuinely differential level of information and visibility, common across their whole fleet, the need for investment and a partner that could support our aspirations was critical.
“The partnership with YFM will support and accelerate these plans, along with providing additional and ongoing investment into our market leading aftersales service.
“We are delighted with the advice we received from Nick and the team at Grant Thornton, who clearly understood how important it was for find an investor which not only shared our vision for the future but also our culture too.”
Charlie Robinson, partner at YFM, added: “We have been very impressed by Gavin and the rest of the ISS team.
“They have done a fantastic job in developing ISS to its current position and the business is now well-positioned to exploit growth opportunities across a number of markets with an expanding product and service portfolio, all against a backdrop of increasing importance of health and safety across all industries.
“YFM has a proven track record in partnering with similar growth businesses and supporting them to deliver their plans.
“ISS’ positive impact on safety for its customers resonates strongly with YFM’s approach.
“We look forward to working with ISS on the next stage of the company’s journey.”
Grant Thornton’s West Midlands Corporate Finance Advisory team advised ISS on the deal.
Alongside corporate finance partner Nick Gillott, Harry Gabriel and Matthew Wong from Grant Thornton’s Birmingham office, Midlands lawyers from Freeths (shareholders) and Gateley (YFM) were involved, alongside bank facilities provided by Clydesdale Yorkshire Bank.
Other advisers included Fairgrove Partners (commercial due diligence); Stratton HR (organisational review); Turous (IT due diligence); Claritas (tax advisory) and Cooper Parry (commercial due diligence).
