Former Highland League footballer turned transatlantic entrepreneur Chris Herd has secured a further £38 million investment in his Firstbase venture.
The fresh capital is expected to continue to fuel the company’s plans for hiring, product development, operations and geographic expansion.
Mr Herd, 31, chief executive, has gone from architecture studies at Robert Gordon University (RGU), jobs in the oil and gas industry and Highland League football to multi-million-pound-backed entrepreneurship in little more than a decade.
He teamed up with Trey Bastian, a former Stirling University computer science student and ex-US air force staff sergeant, to launch Firstbase in 2019.
The American-registered firm is run by Mr Herd from Aberdeen.
It helps other companies set up, manage, maintain and retrieve all the equipment remote workers need.
From laptops and monitors to microphones, headsets, ergonomic chairs and adjustable desks, the Firstbase platform handles the deployment of assets, IT installation and upgrades, ongoing repairs and collections when a worker leaves.
Existing investors include BrewDog co-founder and chief executive James Watt.
Investment to date nearly £50m
Firstbase announced a funding deal worth $13 million (£9.9m at today’s exchange rates) last April.
It was led by Silicon Valley-headquartered venture capital (VC) firm Andreessen Horowitz.
That deal followed a $2m (£1.5m) seed funding round, led by New York-based venture capitalist Alpaca VC, in 2020.
Firstbase – founded just six months before the start of the Covid pandemic – has now attracted another $50m (£38m) in a fundraising led by Kleiner Perkins, another Silicon Valley-based VC firm, bringing its total funding raised to date to $65m (nearly £50m).
The firm said its business had “rapidly scaled” to address increased demand for companies to allow employees to work from anywhere.
The ability to work remotely is no longer a perk – it’s a requirement.”
Chris Herd, CEO, Firstbase.
Mr Herd, who played for Turriff United, Inverurie Locos and Huntly before hanging up his boots to focus on Firstbase, explained: “The ‘great reset’ is under way for today’s workforce. The millions of people who left unfulfilling jobs are in search of new opportunities with greater flexibility.
“The ability to work remotely is no longer a perk – it’s a requirement, differentiating companies in recruiting and helping them retain and attract great employees.
“Businesses need to adjust everything from HR and IT to facilities to efficiently offer a seamless, enjoyable employee experience.”
The past two years have shown more than 255 million desk workers globally that work can be done from anywhere.”
Josh Coyne, Kleiner Perkins.
In a recent Monster Intelligence Future of Work 2022 survey, 43% of employers believed hybrid was the way of the future and 40% said flexible work options helped them to retain talent.
Firstbase spoke to more than 3,000 companies and feedback noted the ability to hire the best talent for a role, regardless of location, as the most consistent benefit of offering remote work.
Kleiner Perkins’ Josh Coyne, now a director of Firstbase, said: “The past two years have shown more than 255 million desk workers globally that work can be done from anywhere.
“For employers, the cross-functional logistics of supporting remote workers can be daunting.
“Ordering, shipping, setting up, managing, securing, repairing and eventually collecting the physical assets to enable employees is a huge operational undertaking.
“Firstbase is defining a new category of remote employee experience management.”
Mr Herd, whose parents run fish and chip shops in Aberdeen, joined the oil and gas industry after leaving RGU armed with a masters degree in architecture.
The former Hazlehead Academy pupil was a project engineer with Integrated Catering Equipment and then Aiken Group, and had a couple of other jobs before launching his first venture, a fintech business, in 2018.
He was among the speakers at The Press and Journal Business Breakfast, in partnership with Turcan Connell, in Aberdeen on Thursday.
