Technology and services
| Sector | Technology and services |
| Sub-sector | Software |
| Location | Australia |
The company’s core product is Critical Risk Management (Forwood CRM), a Software as a Service (SaaS) end-to-end AI-driven fatality prevention solution that helps strengthen a client’s critical controls and risk management culture.
There are approximately 2.3 million accidental work-related fatalities each year, with a disproportionate number happening in the mining and construction industries and developing countries.1 As societal expectations on organisations to provide a safe place to work grow, legislative requirements become stricter and penalties for falling short of safety standards increase, there’s an increasing focus on staff safety and wellbeing across industries worldwide, especially those deemed ‘high risk’.
Macquarie Capital’s Venture Capital (MCVC) team has a long track record of successfully investing in Australian software companies, using sector expertise to support global development and expansion in a capital-efficient way.
The MCVC team were impressed by the material improvement in safety standards at Forwood’s customer sites and how Forwood was contributing to making workplaces safer. Forwood also stood out due to its capital efficient growth that was entirely self-funded prior to MCVC’s investment.
Outcome
Forwood CRM has now been implemented across more than 800 sites globally and all of these sites have remained fatality free since the full deployment of Forwood CRM.2
MCVC’s investment allows Forwood to increase its footprint in the mining industry, expand into other high-risk industries, and develop new products. These include software to manage catastrophic risks, artificial intelligence and video analytics to monitor safe behaviours and conditions, and software to help companies comply with multiple environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks.
Partnering with Macquarie has been a fantastic journey and the engagement model with Forwood has been high value-add and supportive. Having them as an investment partner has allowed us to expand our vision of making the world a safer place to work by providing innovative safety solutions wherever human life is at risk to more clients, industries and global locations.”
Steve Wood
Forwood Founder and CEO
Forwood’s founder was involved in a mining accident and has since dedicated his career to eliminating fatalities and serious injuries in the workplace – what Forwood calls “Mission Zero”.
sites have implemented Forwood CRM globally2
recorded on site by companies since the full deployment of Forwood CRM2
anonymised critical control data points generated by Forwood CRM users2
verification methodology to triple cross-check on all critical risks and controls
1. ‘World Statistic’, The International Labour Organisation, https://www.ilo.org/moscow/areas-of-work/occupational-safety-and-health, accessed October 2023.
2. ‘Critical Risk Management (CRM)’, Forwood, https://forwoodsafety.com/critical-risk-management, accessed October 2023.
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