A Cornish Software company has more than doubled its head count and gone on to become one of the best places to work in Cornwall since it received funding via SWIG Finance in 2015.
Six years ago, Bluefruit Software approached SWIG for a £50k loan to strengthen its working capital. Since then, the business has grown significantly, reporting 10%-40% growth each year.
Led by Paul Massey, who started the original company in 2000, Bluefruit specialises in embedded software development and testing.
Culture is a fundamental part of the business and its tagline ‘Bluefruit is People’ is particularly apt in 2019 it won the Best Place to Work in Cornwall award in 2019, as well as becoming an employee-owned business.
Steve Forth, finance director at Bluefruit, said: “At Bluefruit we like to challenge tradition. We believe in a collaborative approach to decision-making, and our aim as a business is to empower our people. We have seen first-hand how important it is to create a learning culture where everyone feels encouraged to succeed, and in return our employees are committed and loyal.”
“We are grateful for SWIG Finance’s support whilst the business was still relatively young, because it meant that we were able to grow at a much quicker rate, and since the funding we have been able to create more than 40 new roles which not only benefits the business, but our local community as well.”
