A Stirling-based developer of ‘rapidly deployable’ modular infrastructure solutions for defence, security and humanitarian applications has secured £940,000 in funding.
The investment in Quickblock has been led by Equity Gap, the University of Strathclyde and Scottish Enterprise, with additional grant funding from Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK supporting research and development activity.
The funding will help accelerate Quickblock’s expansion into key European markets, strengthen its commercial operations and increase production capacity to meet rising demand across the humanitarian, security and military sectors.
Demand for training infrastructure that can be deployed quickly is increasing, following NATO’s commitment to significantly raise defence spending and continued efforts by European governments to strengthen military capability and resilience.
Quickblock is well placed to respond through its modular infrastructure systems, which are designed for military training, force protection and operational support. Its solutions can also be used by humanitarian organisations to rapidly deploy shelters in remote or high-risk environments.
The company has developed a modular building system made from 100% recycled polypropylene. Its flat-pack, interlocking blocks can be used to create reconfigurable training environments for military and police forces, as well as structures designed to protect people from ballistic, blast and drone threats.
Over the past three years, Quickblock has built a track record with defence customers in the UK and internationally, delivering contracts for the UK MoD, the German Bundeswehr and the Indian Army. It has also established 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.”
