Cascade Technologies | Panoramic | UK Growth Capital & Buyout Funding

Stirling based, Cascade Technologies developed and patented the world’s first real-time technology for the detection, measurement and monitoring of gas emissions and explosives through its revolutionary use of quantum cascade lasers. This is used in a range of commercial applications such as the monitoring of gas emissions in power stations, substance detection at airports and analytics in petrochemical processes

On 23 December 2014, Cascade Technologies was sold to Emerson, a U.S.- headquartered global manufacturing and technology company.

The sale generated a strong return on investment for Panoramic on an investment of £1.75m made in May 2011 and additional follow on commitments made in 2014.

How has Panoramic helped?

Over the period of Panoramic’s investment and under the chairmanship of Tony Lochery, one of Panoramic’s advisory board members, Cascade has seen significant growth, with revenues tripling. In 2012, Cascade was listed as one of Britain’s 100 fastest growing private companies by The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100.

Panoramic invested an initial £1.75 million of growth capital in mid 2011 at a time when Cascade was loss making and cash constrained. In the year following investment, sales increased by over 100% and Cascade generated £1 million profit. This rate of growth continued into 2012 with Cascade achieving rate of 39.45% per year and annual revenues of over £6milion.

Stephen Campbell, Partner at Panoramic Growth Equity:

“This is an example of UK manufacturing at its best. We are very proud to have given this business the financial and operational support that it needed to achieve such impressive growth over the last three years, becoming a truly international player with market-leading products. This has been achieved off the back of hard work and dedication from the management team who have been extremely successful in staying ahead of the competition and who are highly respected in their field.”

Iain Howieson, CEO of Cascade Technologies:

“Panoramic’s investment in Cascade and their hands-on support has been invaluable in helping the company to grow to where it is now. Together, we have enhanced Cascade’s international profile and have significantly expanded our customer base, which in turn has enabled us to triple revenues in the last three years. The Panoramic team has in-depth experience of growing businesses and they have really helped us to renew the commercial focus of the business and attract high quality staff, ultimately winning the attention of a large multinational company.”