Calash is pleased to announce that it provided commercial due diligence to BGF on its investment into Sulmara, an independent provider of survey and inspection services to the offshore wind and broader offshore energy markets.
What Does Sulmara Do?
Glasgow headquartered Sulmara delivers advanced offshore survey and inspection services, with core capabilities in:
- Uncrewed and remote survey technology
- Site characterisation and geophysical data acquisition
- Route development and offshore project support
- BGF is investing £15 million to accelerate Sulmara’s development of new technologies, including:
- Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs)
- Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)
- Nextgeneration geophysical sensors
- Advanced offshore data products
These technologies enable Sulmara to deliver faster, high quality survey results while reducing the environmental impact of offshore operations—an increasingly important requirement in the offshore wind sector.
Calash’s Role: Commercial Due Diligence for BGF
Calash delivered targeted commercial due diligence (CDD) for BGF to support the investment.
The scope included:
- Review of Sulmara’s technologies and service capabilities
- Market assessment and mapping across offshore wind survey and inspection demand
- Evaluation of Sulmara’s competitive positioning
- Review of the company’s growth strategy and business plan
- A comprehensive customer referencing exercise to validate performance and service quality
This work helped inform BGF’s investment case and supported decisionmaking around Sulmara’s future growth trajectory.
Statement from BGF
“Sulmara has cutting edge technology and faces into the rapidly evolving offshore wind market, so Calash’s understanding and deep technical and commercial experience of both proved to be of vital support when assessing our investment into the business.”
Richard Pugh, Investor, BGF
About BGF
BGF, established in 2011, was created to address the UK SME funding gap and now backs hundreds of companies across multiple sectors, stages, and regions.
It operates with a well-capitalised, evergreen balance sheet of £3 billion, supporting businesses with growth capital, minority investments, and long-term partnership funding.
About Sulmara
Founded in 2019, Sulmara has grown rapidly to more than £55.8 million (~$70 million) in annual revenue, delivering a 61% compound annual growth rate over four years. The company now has a global footprint with offices in:
- Glasgow
- Aberdeen
- Norwich
- Houston
- Singapore
- Taipei
Sulmara’s growth is driven by its ability to use remote survey systems and innovative offshore technologies to deliver efficient, low-carbon solutions for clients in the offshore wind and energy markets.
The business was the first services company in the offshore wind sector to sign The Climate Pledge and has achieved independently verified Carbon Neutrality under the BSI PAS 2060:2014 standard.
Sulmara supports major clients globally—including Ørsted, Chevron, and Seaway7—and BGF’s investment will enable further expansion of complex, low-carbon data collection capabilities in challenging offshore environments.
Read more here
