Universal signalling closes funding round

This milestone not only highlights investor confidence in Universal Signalling’s founders and technology portfolio, with its potential to fundamentally change the cost and efficiency of rail worldwide, but also its strong go-to-market strategy.

Universal Signalling was founded in 2022 by three engineers with wide experience in rail technology and operations. Dr Sam Bemment, Dr Nick Wright, and Stephen Head MBA all shared a frustration at how existing products, with decade-long deployment times, were stifling rail’s potential to underpin decarbonisation efforts and boost social inclusion. Universal Signalling’s products will dramatically reduce design and deployment time to days, saving the taxpayer money, and providing benefits to clients – and the travelling public – much sooner than alternative approaches.

This investment will accelerate Universal Signalling’s next-generation technology development and deployment, supporting rapid infrastructure modernisation efforts while reducing costs. With the backing of SFC Capital—one of the UK’s most active early-stage investors—the company is well placed to advance its proprietary technology and extend its reach to global transport networks.

Stephen Head MBA, Chief Operating Officer of Universal Signalling, and Universal Signalling’s investment lead, commented:

“Securing this investment is a key milestone for Universal Signalling. Our technology is designed to set new standards for speed, cost, and reliability in railway signalling, and having the support of SFC Capital and our angel investors validates our vision. This funding will allow us to scale development, bring our solutions to market more swiftly, and continue innovating at the highest level.”

Edward Stevenson, Investment Executive at SFC Capital echoed this enthusiasm:

“From the moment we saw Universal Signalling’s business and technology proposition, we knew it had the potential to deliver a significant positive impact on the global railway industry. Their experienced team has demonstrated exceptional technical expertise and a deep understanding of the industry’s challenges, and we are excited to support them in bringing their ground-breaking solutions to operators worldwide.”

Universal Signalling remains committed to reducing the cost and deployment time of railway signalling systems. With the first tranche of funding secured, the company looks forward to closing the second tranche in the next 3 months. All funds will be used to accelerate development of safety-critical elements, supporting early commercial deployments.

In an exclusive comment to Global Railway Review, Dr Sam Bemment said “For many years, the view has been that early-stage venture capital funding was not compatible with rail’s long CapEx investment cycles, especially so in safety critical areas such as signalling and train control. However, in this case, several investors have judged our strong go-to-market strategy, backed by an excellent team with wide experience across rail business, technology, and operations, to be a formula for success. I’d like to thank the Universal Signalling and SFC teams, as well as our business angels, for working so hard to get this deal over the line over the past few months. In particular, Stephen Head, our COO and Sarah Ashworth, our CFO who have led on the detail of the deal and business planning that goes with it. Of course, the whole team here are over the moon and we will enjoy this moment of celebration. But we can’t lose sight of the vision or forget this investment is just a small part of the bigger picture: Railway signalling’s increasing price tag, and Government’s shrinking appetite to pay it, may well lead to the closure of some of our rural railways unless affordable solutions are developed. Our team are passionate and determined not to allow that to happen, and we are delighted our new investors have backed our vision.”