CEO Address – FLAIM Systems Series A Capital Raise

Simon Miller, FLAIM CEO

Good morning, everyone and thank you for the positive introduction.

Thank you for joining us today as we celebrate this fantastic milestone.

We are delighted to welcome BV as a significant investor in FLAIM with this $5M cornerstone investment to our $6.7m Series A capital raise.

FLAIM is committed to eliminating accidents and fatalities in hazardous workplaces through the development of virtual reality immersive learning solutions.

Our journey commenced on this campus and was made possible by the commitment of the founding researcher and our CTO Dr James Mullins.

James, in conjunction with a team of highly skilled engineers, combined their expertise in robotics and software development to solve a real-world problem.

The fact being that due to economic, logistical, and environmental factors firefighters cannot get enough access to train in real fires.

James, as a long-term volunteer firefighter with CFA, was acutely aware of the dangers that firefighters face when responding to fires.

The United States recorded more than 100 firefighters’ deaths annually over the last 20 years and 10% of these occurred during training events.

When I first met James in late 2018, he recalled his first-hand experience of the Linton fires that tragically killed 5 local Geelong volunteers and why he was so impassioned to find ways to adopt technology to develop better training to help firefighters stay safe.

One year later I invested in James and in 2020 joined FLAIM as CEO to help continue the development of this pioneering technology.

None of this would have happened without the support of Deakin University and I would like to recognise our friends at Deakin for backing the vision and continuing to support us on this journey.

FLAIM is committed to providing safe, environmentally positive training solutions to the global firefighter and emergency services community.

FLAIM training is virtual, so there is no carcinogen exposure to the firefighter or instructor, no wastewater and zero carbon emissions.

To put this in perspective, and as noted by John ….. 2,000 hours of FLAIM virtual water hose training saves the equivalent of 10 million litres of water!

To align with our scale-up ambitions, it was very important to FLAIM that we partner with strategic investors and like-minded people that share our aspirations to develop a market leadership platform.

BV’s investment focus to support innovative technologies, deliver financial and social impact, solve global problems, and improve the health and wellbeing of society, aligns perfectly to FLAIM’s ethos to pioneer innovative technology driven learning solutions that improve the safety, capability and performance of those that serve their community.

This investment round gives FLAIM the runway to fully develop the technology into a learning platform and to expand business development resources in the US and UK

In line with this expansion, and over the next few years, we intend to increase our workforce by creating 25 new high value software development and education and learning roles to build out our team in Victoria.

Through this expansion we look forward to putting Geelong and Victoria on the global map as a leading innovator in immersive learning technology

and continuing to support our early adopter customers here in Australia and overseas …. and welcome to CFA members joining us today

In closing I would like to thank FLAIM’s seed investors, that are with us today, including SVC, Common Sense Ventures, Jonathan Tooth and Frank Cooper for their support and patience as we navigated through the Covid pandemic ….

virtual online meetings and trying to convince someone to put on a VR headset was quite challenge during this period but we stayed lean, kept learning and preserved capital.

Thanks also to our Corporate Advisors, Henslow, as I would not have discovered FLAIM without being involved in their ecosystem.

I would also like to recognise the whole FLAIM team for their dedication and contribution to our winning culture,

and pay special thanks to Dr Jeffrey Godfredson, retired MFB Fire Chief, who has been instrumental in opening doors and influencing major industry bodies both here and in the United States through his incredible network.

Finally, I would like to thank and acknowledge FLAIM employees and contractors who have invested their personal money, to the collective sum of $330k in FLAIM this Series A capital raise.

Thank you all for your fantastic support!!!!

I am genuinely honoured to receive your commitment and highly privileged to work with this Team to help make this business a huge success.

I now hand over to James to introduce John to FLAIM’s virtual learning world.