Secured via the NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), Operance is able to grow its team further to design, build and release even more features planned for its new Building Safety Module, designed to help companies meet new building safety rules.

The latest funding round for Operance (companies house registered Bimsense), follows the introduction earlier this year of the Building Safety Act, which is designed to improve standards in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. Operance helps building owners to meet the ‘golden thread’ requirement and show that safety has been considered at every stage of a building’s lifecycle, from design and construction to management.

Their new Building Safety Module enables building owners to comply with new legislation with features such as their Higher-Risk Building Registration, Building Safety Case and Safety Case Report features.

The latest funding will enable the company to develop more new features to meet other parts of the Act – in particular the need to develop solutions for Mandatory Reporting and the Residents Voice, the latter being a way of developing two-way communications between residents and building safety managers to report potential safety issues and share important building safety information.

To do this, Operance has already begun expanding the team by securing key senior appointments such as Ian Hetherington as CSO and Dave Peacock as Head of Digital Services. More roles are now been advertised with a focus on further developing their internal software team.

Bimsense was founded in 2016 by Ian Yeo and Scott Pilgrim as a consultancy specialising in building information modelling (BIM). They developed Operance in 2020 with the help of an initial investment from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance. It has since won multiple industry awards and is now used by well-known industry names such as GallifordTry, Tilbury Douglas, Algeco, Morrison Construction and RLB.

Scott Pilgrim, Chief Product Officer at Operance, said: “The new Building Safety Act and Fire Safety Act have introduced the most sweeping reforms in living memory for the construction and residential property sectors. By bringing building intelligence together in one place, Operance can help them meet the challenge. NPIF and Mercia have backed us from the start and the latest funding will allow us to add new features and provide further support for the property industry.”

Maurice Disasi, Investment Associate at Mercia said: “The Bimsense team have created the world’s first purpose-built ‘golden thread’ solution and we are pleased to have been able to support them. Operance will play a key role in helping building owners to comply with the rules and creating safer, more efficient buildings for everyone.”

Sean Hutchinson at British Business Bank added: “The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund offers businesses an alternative route to funding and we are proud to have supported Bimsense from the beginning of its journey.

“The building industry is experiencing substantial change and it is Northern companies like Bimsense that are offering advanced digital solutions to help industry leaders navigate through it.”

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.