A Cornish Software company has more than doubled its head count and gone on to become one of the best places to work in Cornwall since it received funding via SWIG Finance in 2015.
6 years ago, Bluefruit Software approached SWIG for a £50k loan to strengthen their working capital. Since then, the business has grown significantly, reporting 10-40% growth each year.
Led by Paul Massey who started the original company in 2000, Bluefruit is a global leader in embedded software development and testing.
Culture is a fundamental part of the business, and their tagline “Bluefruit is People” could not be more truthful. In fact, since 2019, Bluefruit has been an employee-owned business.
Having won the Best Place to Work in Cornwall award in 2019, Bluefruit continues to celebrate how its diverse culture contributes to its success.
The Bluefruit Team is made up of talented individuals with backgrounds in software, general science, physics, engineering, and mathematics – some of these backgrounds are a far cry from what you might expect at a software company, however, it is diversity in thinking that generates innovation.
As a Lean-Agile business, each and every team member has a chance to influence the processes that affects their work.
By empowering their employees, they have created an entrepreneurial culture in which each team member is encouraged to understand their full potential and develop themselves professionally.
To support their employees’ mental health, Bluefruit strive to ensure that each team member has space to think and to innovate. They also provide a range of fun team-building activities to help develop inter-team relationships and give their employees a chance to blow off steam.
Steve Forth, Finance Director at Bluefruit, told us “At Bluefruit we like to challenge tradition. We believe in a collaborative approach to decision-making, and our aim as a business is to empower our people. We have seen first-hand how important it is to create a learning culture where everyone feels encouraged to succeed, and in return our employees are committed and loyal.”
“We are grateful for SWIG Finance’s support whilst the business was still relatively young, because it meant that we were able to grow at a much quicker rate, and since the funding we have been able to create more than 40 new roles which not only benefits the business, but our local community as well.”
About SWIG Finance
SWIG Finance is the South West’s leading Community Development Financial Institution. We are passionate about bringing social and economic benefits to people and places in the South West.
We do this by providing support and finance to Start Ups and growing SMEs that can create and secure employment opportunities.
As the South West’s leading delivery partner for Start Up Loans UK, we can provide Start Up Loans from £500 – £25,000. For more information visit https://www.swigfinance.co.uk/start-up-loans/
We also have loans from £10,000 to £250,000 available to South West SMEs who cannot access sufficient funding from their bank https://www.swigfinance.co.uk/funds-available/
For an informal discussion about your funding requirements, get in touch with our friendly and professional team to find out how we can help: info@swigfinance.co.uk / 01872 227 932.