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Solent Automation

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Solent Automation aspires to offer affordable end-of-line robotic packing and palletising systems.

122%
 - 
Funded 7 Aug 2024
£300,000 target
£369,573 from 185 investors
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Business overview

Location Havant, United Kingdom
Social media
Website www.solent-automation.uk
Sectors SaaS/PaaS Non-Digital B2B
Company number 12342259
Incorporation date 2 Dec 2019
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £9M
Equity offered 3.92%
Tax relief

EIS

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Business highlights

  • £1.35m in sales from Jan-23 to Dec-23*
  • Sales growth 2.5 times on previous year (£1.35m)*
  • Profitable in 2023*
  • Pay-per-Hour machine rental model (Rent-a-Robot)
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Key features

  • Secondary Market
  • Nominee investment min. £26.04 +
  • Direct investment min. £30,000.00 +

Pitch

About the Campaign

Solent Automation aims to offer affordable end-of-line robotic packing and palletising automation systems needed in FMCG factories for manual labour-intensive work functions.

The company has become a preferred supplier of palletising and packing robot machines to Premier Foods and Clover Chemicals, and a supplier to Huhtamaki.

The company has developed a range of standardised machines that do not need to be customised for each customer, allowing for mass production, scalability and quick delivery times.

Market Opportunity

Labour crisis, fatigue, repetitive strain injury, unmotivated employees, are just a few of the challenges facing manufacturing facilities today. The solution is clear - automation.

Solent Automation taps into a UK market with approximately 136,000 businesses, including 1,000 large manufacturing enterprises with multiple production lines which require products or boxes to be placed on pallets.

Traction & Key Accomplishment

• Sales growth 2.5 times on previous year (£1.35m)*

• Launched innovative and cost effective Pay-per-Hour machine rental model (Rent-a-Robot)

• Established dealership network

• Participated on FANUC OPEN HOUSE 2023 exhibition as preferred palletising supplier for FANUC UK

• Already taking orders for 2025 deliveries.

• New premises with 10yr lease

* Please note that past performance is not an indication of future performance.

Team

Our team is a blend of highly skilled and experienced executives and technicians with strong manufacturing and sales backgrounds including robotic and design engineers.

Business Model

Revenue streams: Machine sales and servicing & Machine rental

Rent-a-Robot - Pay-Per-Hour (hire, on a long or short-term basis) concept role out for 2024.

This model allows customers to implement state-of-the-art palletising robots and AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots) across their operation, without any upfront costs and overheads.

Machine rental starts at £12.5/hour compared to a standard employee cost of £12.4/hour (2024 minimum national wage)

Use of Funds

30% – Build / Put 10 rent a robot machines into market
30%– working capital to manage cashflows
20% – R&D development of enhanced inhouse user face machine software
10% – Marketing and exhibitions
10% – Office and factory extension to increase production facility.

Key Information

Debt

The company has the following outstanding loans:

£50,000 loan from Michael Anthony Reed at an interest rate of 10% per annum. The loan is to be repaid on end of year 2024, and can be rolling.

£50,000 loan from Adam Wereszczyński at an interest rate of 10% per annum. The loan is to be repaid on end of year 2024, and can be rolling.

£50,000 loan from Adam Wereszczyński at an interest rate of 10% per annum. The loan is to be repaid on end of year 2024, and can be rolling.

£12,000 loan (outstanding) from Maxcap at an interest rate of 25% per annum. The loan is to be repaid on September 2024

£165,000 loan from Funding Circle at an interest rate of 15% per annum. The loan is to be repaid by 20/05/2029 in monthly instalments

The funds raised from this investment round will not be used to repay these loans.

Group Structure

Rent-a-Robot, which was previously a subsidiary of Solent Auomation, was formed by Adam Wereczinsky, Karlo Lackovic and Mario Smrcek to establish a separate rental business. However, investors preferred investing in Solent Automation due to tax qualification issues. Consequently, the Rent-a-Robot concept will no longer exist outside the Solent Automation, but will be part of SOLENT AUTOMATION standard offer after the Seedrs round is successfully completed.

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Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Investing involves risks, including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends and dilution, and should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Please read the Risk Warnings before investing. Investments should only be made by investors who understand these risks. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future.

This webpage is issued by Seedrs Limited (trading as Republic Europe) ("Republic Europe"), and has been approved as a financial promotion for the purposes of s.21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 by Prosper Capital LLP ("Prosper") which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 453007 on 22 August 2024. It is not intended to be a promotion of any individual investment opportunity and is not an offer to the public. The summary information provided about investment opportunities on this webpage is intended solely to demonstrate the types of investments available on the Republic Europe platform, and any investment decision should be made on the basis of the full campaign. Full campaigns are available to investors who have become authorised to invest on the Republic Europe platform. It is not for distribution in the United States of America and all investment activities take place within the United Kingdom. Any person resident outside the United Kingdom should ensure that they are not subject to any local regulations before investing.

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Tax Relief (SEIS)

This business is eligible for SEIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 50% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Tax Relief (EIS)

This business is eligible for EIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 30% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Valuation (pre-money)

Valuation rounded from £9,006,780

This is the fully-diluted pre-money valuation of the business (i.e. before the new investment comes in and including issued options and other equity interests). In contrast, the post-money valuation is based on inclusion of the new investment in the value.

It is calculated as the pre-money valuation plus the amount of new investment. e.g. If Company A is ascribed a pre-money valuation of £1,200,000 by prospective investors investing £300,000, its post-money valuation is £1,500,000.

The investee business is responsible for setting its own valuation, it has not been prescribed by Seedrs.

Pitch type

Investing in a regular equity campaign is the simplest and most common way to invest in a startup. You decide which business you want to invest in, and if the campaign hits its funding target then you will become one of their shareholders. As the company becomes more valuable, so do your shares; allowing you the opportunity to share in the future success of the business.

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Equity Offered

The equity offered is the percentage of the company’s shares being issued in return for the amount of investment raised.

When the amount raised is less than 100%, the equity offered is based on the target raise. Once the company has raised over 100% it is based on the total raised.

In some scenarios, entrepreneurs may accept additional direct investment after closing their Seedrs campaign. Provided this is within 6 months of the closing and on the same terms, we do not typically offer pre-emption rights on that extra investment (where you have the opportunity to invest again to maintain your percentage shareholding).

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Nominee investment

This shows if you are able to choose, when making an investment, that you be represented by, and your shareholding be managed by, the Nominee investment.

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Custodian

If you invest in this Campaign, Seedrs will act as Custodian rather than provide our standard nominee service. This is due to the fact that the business is not directly involved in the share sale and Seedrs will not benefit from any rights under a shareholder agreement. As a result, Seedrs will handle administrative tasks as we do normally, but you will not have information or voting rights, updates from the business, preemption on future fundraising, or ongoing support about business trading activity.

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Secondary market

This shows if the business has opted-in or opted-out of allowing its shares to be bought and sold on the secondary market.

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Direct investment

This is an option to invest and hold shares 'directly' in the company (rather than via the Nominee investment). This option is only available to those investing over the threshold amount, which is determined by the fundraising company.

If you choose to hold your shares directly, you will be responsible for any contractual or administrative arrangements with the company you are investing in.

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Payment options

We are not able to accept card payments for investments into this sector. You can pay for your investment by creating a bank transfer, using funds in your investment account or create a Pay by Bank payment. Your investment will only be completed once the funds have reached our account.

Business Involvement

This Campaign offers shares for sale in business that is not directly involved in this Campaign or the sale. As a result, the Campaign and post-investment experience, including investor rights, will differ from a business-led campaign on Seedrs. Most notably, the business will not engage with investors in the discussion forums both during and after the sale or provide any updates to investors.

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Payment options

We are not able to accept Pay by Bank payments for investments into this sector. You can pay for your investment with a card payment, by creating a bank transfer or by using funds in your investment account. Your investment will only be completed once the funds have reached our account.

Drawdowns

This campaign offers the ability to pay for an investment by drawdowns.

Security Token

A security token is a digital asset that represents ownership or other rights. It is a digital form of traditional investments. In the future, you may be able to trade your investment through compatible exchanges.

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