5 days Ago By David Swan
Twenty years after founding a $2.5 billion software start-up from his garage, SafetyCulture chief executive Luke Anear has resigned from his role, as his company builds towards its next stage, including a likely future public listing in the US. Anear, a former private investigator, started SafetyCulture from his Townsville garage in 2004, growing it into one of Australia’s largest privately held technology businesses and employing 900 people globally.
SafetyCulture founder Luke Anear with new chief executive Kelly Vohs. Credit: Greg Fonne It’s widely viewed as the next Atlassian or Canva in terms of Australian success stories exporting their software globally and making billionaires of their founders in the process. Anear says he had 18 jobs before he came up with the idea for SafetyCulture, during his time “spying on people at work” as he puts it, working as a private investigator.
He witnessed the impact of workplace incidents on businesses and their employees, and built a simple checklist app for workplace inspections to help reduce hazards and accidents. Loading SafetyCulture has since grown into an all-in-one workplace operations platform, serving nearly 2 million customers globally and targeting 100 million users by 2032. Its software is predominantly used by frontline workers across construction, manufacturing, hospitality and retail.
In September, SafetyCulture raised $165 million at a $2.5 billion valuation, down slightly from its $2.7 billion valuation a year earlier but further cementing its position as one of Australia’s most valuable software companies.
The company has yet to turn a profit and most recently posted a $36 million loss for the past financial year, though it’s common for high-growth software companies to remain unprofitable for an extended period while they grow in scale. Now, ahead of an expected future IPO that would likely be in the US, Anear has announced his resignation and will shift to a role as the company’s executive chair. He will remain SafetyCulture’s largest shareholder and owns just under a quarter of the company.
Anear said in an interview the time was right to hand over the reins to technology veteran Kelly Vohs, who will be based in the United States. Vohs was originally destined to join SafetyCulture as company president but instead will join as its CEO..
