The founder of Sydney workplace tech scaleup SafetyCulture, Luke Anear, will finish up as CEO at the end of the year after leading the business he founded in a Queensland garage for two decades.
Anear will shift into the new role of executive chairman from January 1, with former SafetyCulture customer Kelly Vohs, most recently CEO of the US-based real estate firm LivCor, stepping into the chief executive role.
The founder said he plans to focus on further development of the company’s long-term vision and strategy as chair, working with investors as well as offering strategic advice to Kelly and the senior leadership team.
“Now is the right time for me to transition into the role of executive chairman. The business has never been in a better position,” Anear said.
“I couldn’t be any prouder of the impact SafetyCulture has had on the world to date, but we are just getting started.”
In September, the workplace checklist app developer raised $75 million at a $2.5 billion valuation, alongside $90 million in shares changing hands in secondary sales.
It was a $200 million dip on the valuation a year earlier when the company raised $34 million, but that was at a $600 jump in SafetyCulture’s previous worth.
Local VC Airtree joined the cap table, chipping in $40 million, with superannuation funds Hostplus and Hesta also buying in, along with Blackbird, which first invested 11 years ago. At the same time Blackbird also sold down some of its stake from maturing early funds, with partner Rick Baker saying they had “done very well out of their early investments”.
SafetyCulture now has 900 employees across six offices globally, with 85,000 businesses and nearly 2 million users on the platform. After 20 years of building, Anear is hoping to add another 98 million users over the next eight years.
“Building a world-changing company takes time and requires a long-term commitment. We are continuing to invest in Artificial Intelligence, and in addition to our software, we now provide 75,000 consumable products to our customers,” the outgoing CEO said.
“What we are doing is building several multi-billion dollar revenue businesses at the same time, and we will start to see the compounding effect of this strategy come into play in the years ahead.”
Vohs was a SafetyCulture customer in its earlier iteration back in 2012. The former US Army Special Forces officer also joined the business in 2015 as president and will be based in the States.
“I’ve seen firsthand the potential SafetyCulture’s platform has to completely transform workplaces, help teams improve and keep people safe,” he said.
“I’m ready to tackle the challenge of helping even more customers start that journey.”
Anear still has no plans to go public with SafetyCulture, although he’s reporting pondering a US listing, having taken on more than $245 million in venture funding over 11 years since Blackbird, Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, and US investor Bill Tai backed a $1.2 million Seed round in 2013.
The founder owns nearly a quarter of the business, putting his personal wealth at around $625 million.
In March last year he said the company’s strategy had shifted “from a growth mode to being profitable” and had “infinite runway”.
The business posted a $36 million loss last financial year, down from a $46.1m loss in FY23. Revenue grew by 30% to $160.6 million.
Two years ago, Anear, a former workplace accident detective, threatened to relocate the company to the US following media reports of SafetyCulture’s financial losses.
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