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Seaham tech startup lands incubator investment from Finance Durham

Seaham-based Moralbox, a tech startup which helps employers and employees to work together to manage training records, has landed a £40k investment from the Finance Durham fund.

The backing, which represents the Fund’s first incubator investment, will help Moralbox to further develop its platform and profile.

Designing a web-based software platform which creates a centralised training and certification profile for employees, Moralbox helps employers to analyse and manage their workforce training records ultimately saving them time and money.

The team at Moralbox recognised that many companies, particularly those in the manufacturing, industrial and construction sectors where health and safety is of paramount importance, do not have adequate systems in place for managing the training needs of their workforce.

Founders Gordon MacPherson Jnr, Gordon MacPherson Snr and John Dunnill have almost 50 years’ experience in health and safety training management and software development.

Gordon MacPherson Jnr, CEO of Moralbox, said: “We’re delighted to secure an incubator investment to support the innovation and growth of our business.

“We’re passionate about our technology and believe we’ve created a system that will revolutionise the way employers manage their training.

“The funding will allow us to scale up by employing extra sales staff to market our product and enter new markets as well as further develop the functionality of our software to meet the changing needs of the customers we supply to.

“The Finance Durham Fund is pivotal to the development of small businesses like ours and we’re pleased to benefit from it.”

The funding was secured through the £20m Finance Durham fund from the 10% of the fund which has been ring-fenced specifically for incubator investments to support innovation.

The investment fund is managed by Maven Capital Partners and was launched earlier this year by Business Durham, the economic development organisation for County Durham, on behalf of Durham County Council.

Ben Jones, Investment Associate of Maven, said: “We’re delighted to support Moralbox’s growth plans at this stage in the company’s development.

“The team at Moralbox has identified a clear gap in the market and demonstrated that there’s a real need for the technology they’ve developed across a wide range of business sectors.

“This is a great fit for an investment from the part of the fund allocated to support innovation. We look forward to helping more companies like Moralbox expand through an incubator investment.”