An agile platform to adapt to changing regulations. A team of R&D tax claim and sector specialist: ex-HMRC, ATT qualified, AML trained, AML registered and supervised by HMRC.
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Spacebands
Ronan Finnegan, co-founder
Spacebands' wearable technology enhances workplace safety processes and performance primarily within the manufacturing and construction industries. Its multi-sensor wearable monitors external, environmental hazards, anticipates potential accidents, and gives real-time data on stress in hazardous environments.
Industry
Safety tech
Employees
2-10
R&D Activity
Spacebands initially created and sold their social distancing/contact tracing device during the lockdown in 2020, and delivered over 20,000 units to customers across 30 countries. This set the company up to establish itself with major clients, including Amazon, Sony, and Panasonic.
The business’ latest offering is centred around their health and safety wearable devices that are designed to alert staff when a hazardous event occurs, such as a loud noise or an unauthorised access zone warning. The true innovation lies in the technology’s ability to save the event data, so that it’s available for analysis by health and safety managers through the Spacebands dashboard and mobile app.
“Businesses should always explore the R&D tax credit scheme if they’re eligible: it’s such a valuable initiative for ambitious innovators to secure otherwise inaccessible funds at critical times during business growth.”
Claim History
Spacebands previously claimed R&D tax credits through their accountant, but it soon became evident that they were missing many eligible expenses. For instance, previous claims only considered developer salaries and overlooked various development and testing costs, including physical devices used for testing, external vendor work and stock used for calibration purposes, especially during a three-year development process without sales.
As a result, Spacebands decided to partner with EmpowerRD to gain the necessary expertise to ensure more comprehensive and robust claims moving forwards.
“Seeking help from specialists is absolutely critical to help ensure claims are as robust as possible given how hard it is to keep up with constantly changing regulations"
Working with EmpowerRD
Once onboarded, Spacebands quickly benefited from EmpowerRD’s intuitive platform and personalised support. Now, EmpowerRD manages most of the claim process, securing strong results each year with minimal effort from the team.
Working with EmpowerRD has given Spacebands the additional expert support they’d been looking for. Our Head of Tax, Stuart Millar, has been particularly helpful in ensuring their claims are as thorough and compliant as possible – something that’s increasingly important given the complexity and constant evolution of R&D legislation.
As Spacebands co-founder Ronan Finnegan explains, “Seeking help from specialists is absolutely critical to help ensure claims are as robust as possible given how hard it is to keep up with constantly changing regulations.”
Over time, the process has become even smoother as EmpowerRD’s specialists gained a deeper understanding of the business. The integration with Xero has also simplified the financial side, allowing Spacebands to upload data and tag relevant costs while EmpowerRD handles the detailed review behind the scenes.