Sunstone Systems prides itself on being a company of passionate inventors, smart thinkers and problem solvers – enjoying rapid growth from start-up to global player in the renewable energy sector.
That solar-powered CCTV security systems are standing the test of time in the hostile climate of a remote Kazakh oil field owes much to Kent’s financial support and engineering know-how.
Sunstone Systems has grown from a start-up in 2011 to a global player on track for £20m+ turnover over in the next five years.
When US giant Chevron invited the small business to develop their Solar IP CCTV System (SICS) for the Tengiz field in north-western Kazakhstan, the project required considerable working capital and significant scale- up from a staffing point of view.
Sunstone turned to the Kent County Council run Kent and Medway Business Fund for a £350,000 interest-free loan to make it happen.
Aaron David, Chief Financial Officer, explains, “This was significantly larger than anything we had done before. We needed the initial loan to help the business scale up to meet the project.
It was critical to bringing in highly skilled people from the Kent area with expertise in solar and hardware and software and we wouldn’t have been able to achieve the success of that project without those people.”
The loan was definitely the springboard for the company to bring on new clients and transition from operating in Kent and the South East to a global scale,” says Aaron.
The KMBF team were very proactive. During the application process, they were responsive and diligent in their willingness to cover off any issues of ambiguity. I would recommend it to others 100%.