Brisbane's RedEye raises $10.4 million Series B round

Brisbane company RedEye has raised $10.4 million in a Series B round led by American fund Energy Innovation Capital (EIC), with participation from investors including the Queensland Government’s Business Development Fund.

The funding will be put towards growing the business further internationally: RedEye has a team of 70 across Brisbane, Manila, and Las Vegas, where it opened an office earlier this year, and expects this number to double over the next 12 months. 

Founded in 2012, RedEye has a number of products helping clients in industries as varied as oil and gas and healthcare go about their work, from an asset management solution to a drawing and data management tool helping businesses collect, manage, and share engineering information.

With the startup counting the likes of BHP, Snowy Hydro, and SA Power Networks among its clients, cofounder and CEO Wayne Gerard said that the business felt it was now the right time to raise a “substantial” round.

“We consciously decided not to rush this round. Instead we took the time to find the right international investor that had the skills and network to help us achieve our ambitious growth goals, particularly in the US,” he said.

“We’re excited about EIC’s deep domain expertise in enterprise [software-as-a-service] as well as their experience within our target industries. We had a number of interested investors and turned down two previous opportunities because we were committed to finding an investor that was really aligned with our values, culture and shared our growth vision.”

Based in Silicon Valley and Houston, EIC has two key focuses: opportunities across the value chain in the oil and gas industry, and advanced, or renewable, energy.

George Coyle, managing partner of EIC and founder of corporate venture programs including Chevron Technology Ventures, said he is excited to partner with RedEye to help it scale in the US and beyond.

“RedEye have developed SaaS solutions for the full asset management lifecycle rather than just the design and construction phase,” he said.

It has been a strong start to the week for funding news, with fintech Athena Home Loans yesterday announcing the close of a $25 million Series B round, led by Square Peg Capital. Fellow VC Airtree Ventures and super fund Hostplus also participated in the round.

The startup raised a $15 million Series A round in May and announced a partnership with non-bank lender Homeloans Ltd, the company behind homeloans.com.au, in August.

Athena was founded in mid-2017 by former NAB bankers Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey with the goal of creating a “cloud-native” platform through which customers can find the best home loan. One of its key points of difference from the other fintechs targeting the home loan space is that it is partnering with super funds to provide the loans.

Image: Wayne Gerard. Source: Supplied.