Press Release – FrontM successfully raises Pre A funding round to support rapid expansion

FrontM, the programmable collaboration and marketplace software platform company for maritime businesses, on May 4th, 2021 announced that it has raised pre-series A funding, led by Jenson Funding Partners, including participation from a network of international angels.

The London, San Francisco and Bangalore based company has significantly increased customer acquisition in this past year and has signed significant sized long-term contracts across the TeleHealth, Engineering and Service Partner verticals. This funding will provide FrontM with the finances to accelerate the team’s rapid expansion in India and the UK.

FrontM’s enterprise platform, which was used to support Inmarsat’s Covid-19 telehealth service and is currently being used by leading companies such as Thuraya, Vikand Solutions and Aage Hempel Group, has been designed to solve the connectivity and efficiency challenges that businesses, their mobile workforces and customers face in operating in remote, isolated and low bandwidth environments.

These businesses have seen a rise in demand for their services with no viable delivery mechanism that provides a secure, seamless user experience to service consumption across satellite networks. This in turn creates a number of service delivery overheads that can be a drain on company resources and profit margins.

FrontM’s platform approach solves this problem by deploying a highly programmable, secure and data optimised solution, that enables businesses to bring their workforces, customers and partners closer together to improve collaboration across distributed remote sites.

The collaboration tools and marketplace provide users with access to easy-to-use solutions and services, including satellite optimised communication tools, workflow automation, healthcare and live learning services, as well as a growing marketplace of industry specific services, bots and API’s.

FrontM’s customers and partners have experienced a number of benefits inclusive of accelerated digitalisation across their shore, air and ocean base operations. These benefits are understood to not only significantly improve communications, they are also enabling partners and their end clients to get up to 30% more out of their existing satellite connectivity and infrastructure investments.

Len Quist, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Vikand Solutions a leading expert in global medical and public health solutions for the maritime industry, Fort Lauderdale, said, “Mobile technologies have increasingly become an important part of digitising and delivering healthcare, but it has been technologically challenging to bring that to remote locations including the maritime environment. FrontM’s low bandwidth design allows Vikand to provide medical consultancy via video, which is critical for medical providers. The cost effectiveness of the platform enables Vikand to reach a larger segment of the maritime industry.  The flexibility and versatility of the communication platform together with the built in EMR provides a more seamless experience for both the medical user and onboard crew. 

“We initiated an intermediate funding round to build on the momentum we’ve created after pivoting and improvising our way out of the pandemic last year. Satellite connectivity and maritime digitalisation are at a very interesting stage and we’re proud of the transformational value satcom partners and maritime customers find in our offering. I greatly appreciate our investors’ trust and backing in helping us get closer to our vision” said Kiran Venkatesh, FrontM Founder and CEO.

Sarah Barber, CEO, Jenson Funding Partners commented “Delighted to have led the investment and be part of the continuing growth of FrontM, it was impressive to see their response to the global pandemic and how they pivoted their offering.  A remarkable team of individuals.” 

FrontM have established a strong customer and partner base across the maritime industry and are currently rolling out key projects across the UK, USA, Europe and Asia territories. Over the next three to six months the funding will be used to scale headcount across these regions. The new team members will help the business to expand its current customer and partner bases with a focus on the maritime and land based satellite verticals.