A Stirling-based developer of ‘rapidly deployable’ modular infrastructure solutions for defence, security, and humanitarian applications has secured £940,000 in funding.
The equity investment in Quickblock has been led by Equity Gap, the University of Strathclyde, and Scottish Enterprise, with additional grant funding provided by Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK specifically for R&D activity.
The funding is intended to accelerate Quickblock’s expansion across key European markets, strengthen its commercial capability, and increase production capacity to meet growing demand in humanitarian aid, security, and military.
Following NATO’s commitment to significantly increase defence spending and as European governments continue to strengthen military capability and resilience, demand is growing for training infrastructure that can be delivered quickly.
Quickblock is said to be is well positioned to support this through its modular infrastructure systems for military training, force protection and operational support, as well as providing support to humanitarian aid organisations, which can deploy shelters in remote or high-risk environments at speed.
Quickblock has developed a modular building system manufactured from 100% recycled polypropylene. Its flat-pack, interlocking blocks enable the construction of reconfigurable training environments for military and police and structures which protect people from ballistic, blast, and drone attack. Over the past three years, the company has established a track record with defence customers in the UK and overseas. Quickblock has delivered contracts with the UK MoD, the German Bundeswehr, and the Indian Army. It has also built an international network of distributors and commercial partners.
Andrew Vincent, CEO of Quickblock, said, “This funding marks an important milestone in Quickblock’s growth journey and is a strong endorsement of both our technology and our strategy of growth in Europe. Europe is entering a sustained period of investment in defence capability, infrastructure and readiness. Our mission is ultimately to provide protection for people, to help armed forces deploy infrastructure faster, more efficiently and more sustainably – whether for military training, force protection or humanitarian aid support.
“We’re delighted to have the continued support of Equity Gap, the University of Strathclyde and Scottish Enterprise as investors and are grateful for the continued support of Innovate UK. Their backing will enable us to accelerate our growth, strengthen our presence across Europe and continue to innovate our product offering providing new solutions that meet the evolving needs of defence and security.”
Fraser Lusty, MD of Equity Gap, added, “Equity Gap has supported Quickblock since 2021, developing its technology and product suite in conjunction with UK and overseas militaries. Against the current background of increased global defence spending, Quickblock is now uniquely positioned to build on this and provide rapidly deployable solutions as flexible, realistic training environments or protective infrastructure to save lives and assets during operations. Equity Gap is proud to continue to support the team’s expansion and scale-up in the growing defence and humanitarian sectors.”
