Luke Anear steps down as SafetyCulture CEO

SafetyCulture has announced a leadership shakeup, with founder Luke Anear stepping down as CEO. Kelly Vohs is set to take over as chief executive as Anear transitions into the role of executive chairman.

Anear founded SafetyCulture in 2004 and, according to the company, will remain closely involved in shaping the company’s vision and strategy while continuing to work with investors and the senior leadership team.

Vohs will take over as CEO on January 1, 2025.

“I’ve always been pretty open about my goal to transition into an executive chairman role at some point, and the time is right, both professionally and personally, for me to make that change now after 20 years leading this business,” Anear said to SmartCompany.

“SafetyCulture is at a really exciting inflection point, and there’s a huge opportunity ahead. The US is our largest market and biggest opportunity, so having a US-based CEO with deep knowledge of the market will be a big advantage.”

“Now is the right time for me to transition into the role of executive chairman. The business has never been in a better position, and I’m incredibly confident in Kelly and the senior leadership team’s ability to continue to build a world-changing company that improves the lives of hundreds of millions of workers every day,” Anear said.

Vohs joins as CEO after serving as chief executive of US real estate company LivCor. He highlighted his enthusiasm for the role and SafetyCulture’s potential to impact workplaces globally.

“I am deeply honoured to accept this role and excited by the clear mandate I’ve been given to drive the company forward towards its next big milestones,” Vohs said.

“I’ve seen firsthand the potential SafetyCulture’s platform has to completely transform workplaces, help teams improve and keep people safe. I’m ready to tackle the challenge of helping even more customers start that journey.”

Big moves for SafetyCulture

Recent months have been pivotal for SafetyCulture. In September, the company raised $165 million in funding, comprising $75 million in new capital and $90 million in secondary sales.

While the valuation of $2.5 billion was slightly lower than the previous year, Anear described the funding as a success in a challenging market.

“We try not to get too caught up in valuation dips. The market fluctuates, and that is to be expected, but the business has actually never been in a better position,” Anear said.

Vohs’ appointment comes as SafetyCulture navigates an ambitious goal to reach 100 million users by 2032, while also addressing the challenges of scaling its operations sustainably.

“We are well on track to become the most used ops platform in the world. In 2022, we set the goal to reach 100 million users by 2032, which was 100 times our user base. Today, just two years on, that goal is now only 50x from where we are, and that will compound in the years ahead,” Anear said.

Despite narrowing its losses to $36 million in the last financial year and reporting a 30% revenue increase to $160.6 million, SafetyCulture has acknowledged achieving profitability remains a long-term goal.

The company has cited its continued investments in artificial intelligence, consumables, and insurance products as critical to driving future revenue growth, even as these initiatives prolong its timeline to financial sustainability.

With no immediate plans for an IPO, the company has also committed to creating liquidity events for investors and employees.

“Creating regular liquidity events is important to our investors and staff who have been with the company for a long time. We will continue to create these opportunities regularly, which means there is less pressure and more control over the timeline for a potential IPO,” Anear said.

The expansion of SafetyCulture

SafetyCulture’s platform, originally designed as a workplace safety checklist app, has evolved into a broader operations platform used primarily by frontline workers across industries such as construction, manufacturing, hospitality, and retail.

The company’s tools have also expanded to include consumables and insurance products, as part of a strategy to create complementary revenue streams.

SafetyCulture has also invested heavily in AI, leveraging its repository of more than five petabytes of workplace data to develop tools that aim to deliver actionable insights for customers and improve frontline operations.

According to Anear, one of the biggest challenges the company is facing is how rapidly it is scaling its customer base. The company has reported a significant increase in usage since transitioning to an organisation-wide software and as a workplace operations platform.

According to SafetyCulture, some customers have subsequently scaled from 5,000 users to more than 80,000 workers on the platform in the past year. This is a milestone Anear says the business thought they were still a couple of years away from.

“It’s great but it also means we have to sort out some scaling problems that every growing company faces, like user management for thousands of users per account, which you can imagine starts to get quite complex.”