Clydesdale Bank backs Fotech Solutions' international expansion

7th September 2012

Clydesdale Bank has delivered a new £3 million funding package for Fotech Solutions, the global provider of fibre optic monitoring systems to the energy, safety and security sectors.

The deal will see Clydesdale Bank provide Fotech Solutions with the funding required to bring its state-of-the-art Helios monitoring system fully to market, increase its workforce and expand into new global territories.

The company, headquartered in Hampshire but with offices in the USA and Canada, produces robust monitoring systems for a range of uses including oil and gas production, pipeline protection and perimeter security.

The company’s revolutionary Helios Distributed Acoustic Sensor (DAS) monitoring system is already popular with oil and gas companies engaged in fraccing, the process of applying pressure to subsurface oil and gas shale reservoirs to fracture the rock and release the trapped oil and gas.

Fotech Solutions’ innovative real time monitoring system can hear the fractures occurring and pinpoint the resulting production. The system can also detect any unplanned leak of fluid or effect of the fluid on surrounding zones, so reducing the environmental impact of the frac process while maximising production.

The new funding from Clydesdale Bank will allow Fotech Solutions to undertake the full commercialisation of its products and make further investment in research and design activities – which will be supported by a significant increase in the company’s workforce. Mark Taylor, Director, Growth Finance at Clydesdale Bank, said: “Fotech Solutions is a growing company with ambitions to expand its already impressive customer base.

“We are confident that our funding will support those ambitions and allow the company to achieve its goal of becoming a major global player in the development and delivery of state-of-the-art monitoring systems.”

Fotech Solutions’ fibre optic detection systems also form part of the pipeline defence systems used by many oil and gas companies operating in hostile and potentially volatile regions across the world.

Chris Shannon, Chief Executive of Fotech Solutions, said: “We are pleased to have switched to Clydesdale Bank at a point in the development of our company when we are ready to fully roll out our systems to existing and new customers.

“Since being established in 2008 we have invested a lot of effort in developing our systems to the point where we can commercialise them. The transition to Clydesdale Bank has been extremely smooth and will be a big boost as we target the opportunities available to Fotech Solutions in Africa, South America and Asia.”