SWIG Finance provides "missing link" for Bristol greentech firm's European expansion

A Bristol tech company has received a £250,000 loan boost from SWIG Finance in a bid to take its environmental mission global. 

Map Impact Ltd develops Earth Observation products to meet the ever-increasing worldwide demand for statutory and regulatory environmental compliance reporting. 

Their technology addresses a range of environmental assessment needs including biodiversity, climate change, and water catchment quality.  It was recently deployed at Lake Windemere, where the team combined time series satellite imagery with mobile phone data to prove that sewage-related algal blooms coincided with periods of mass tourism; and for a Housing Association where their proprietary “HeatView” application was used to assess a portfolio of 10,000 dwellings for susceptibility to increasingly frequent heatwaves and inform a mitigation strategy for investing in strategically located green spaces. 

Headquartered in Bristol, the company was launched in 2023 by four industry colleagues  - CEO Rich Flemmings, COO Chris Burnett, CCO Steve Keohane and CFO Paul Ryder - in response to legislation which since February 2024 has mandated the monitoring of biodiversity on new housing developments over a 30-year period.  

Map Impact Ltd’s off-the-peg solutions also enable companies to build in resistance to climate challenges including flood, drought and wildfires.  

Paul Ryder explains: “We have to protect and improve the environment by law, but it’s costly, time-consuming and impractical to measure UK-wide environmental factors using only  onsite methods -  specialists on the ground can only cover  a limited area in any given period of time , and there aren’t enough ecologists available to conduct large-scale landscape assessments.  

“Using satellite technology and combining other data sources, we can look across an unlimited area of land and highlight which parts to bring an ecologist in to provide a micro-analysis.  

“The kind of solutions our clients might be considering are positive and preventative: for example, building in firebreaks such as scrubland, green spaces or tree planting. They need data to do this: we supply that, and there is a clear demand for it.” 

Potential customers include risk management professionals such as insurance brokers, mortgage providers, solicitors and conveyancers.  

Map Impact will use the funding to take on 10 new full-time staff initially,  enabling it to extend its national dataset approach to countries including France and Germany. 

Paul described SWIG Finance as “providing the lynchpin between seed capital and larger investors”, adding: “For us to achieve growth there was a missing link which the traditional commercial banking institutions do not provide, and only SWIG came up with the solution.

“SWIG also conducted a strenuous forensic analysis and due diligence on the business which provides credibility and significant reassurance to new investors as we approach the next round of funding: venture capital. It’s fair to say that without SWIG Finance, we wouldn’t be able to progress to the next stage.” 

Nicola Parker, Senior Business Manager at SWIG Finance, said: “This business is relatively new but has nonetheless been successful in developing its offer and securing key partnerships, largely on the back of an innovative product and being reactive to changes in the market.  

“Consequently, Map Impact has a great opportunity to develop its position in the marketplace and to continue to expand its offer at a time when the global climate and its relationship with the human lifestyle is at the forefront of discussion.”