£100k · Debt · Marketing · Otley, UK
Otley-based Apollo3D, which creates digital replicas of buildings for operators and project teams, has secured £100k in commercial debt under the British Business Bank’s Growth Guarantee Scheme. Bdaily reported that the company will use the loan to hire seven people over the next year, build a dedicated commercial team and buy additional 3D camera hardware.
Turning building scans into operating infrastructure
Apollo3D captures physical sites as navigable, measurable digital twins that facilities, design and contractor teams can inspect remotely. Its building-management service combines Matterport models with panoramic imagery, drone video and outputs such as BIM and CAD files. The practical value is coordination: stakeholders can revisit the same spatial record, plan works and brief contractors without repeating an initial survey or sending every participant to site.
The company has already tested that model at estate scale. Apollo3D says a pilot scan of one Primark store in 2021 grew into a programme covering more than 350 stores across the UK and Europe. The retailer used the twins to plan LED upgrades, click-and-collect desks, self-checkouts and department changes; Apollo3D says the process cut physical survey time by 80%. The commercial lesson is specific: a scan becomes more valuable when several internal teams and contractors reuse it across successive projects, giving Apollo3D a route from one-off capture work into longer-lived estate workflows.
That route still depends on field capacity and enterprise sales. Each new site must be captured accurately before the digital asset can be reused, while large multi-site programmes require consistent delivery across locations. More camera hardware expands capture capacity; specialised sales hires can pursue customers with portfolios large enough to make repeat use economic. The loan therefore funds both sides of the constraint rather than software development alone.
Debt against demonstrated demand
The financing follows reported record annual revenue of £550k and a 30% increase in annual inbound enquiries, with Apollo3D employing 12 people before the planned hiring round. Earlier Yorkshire Post reporting traced the business to founder Mark Shepherd’s 2017 launch and showed how it expanded digital twins beyond property marketing into operational planning.
The Growth Guarantee Scheme is administered through accredited lenders rather than lending directly from the British Business Bank. It provides the lender with a 70% government-backed guarantee, while the borrower remains fully liable. For Apollo3D, debt preserves ownership while bringing hiring and equipment forward, but the growth plan must convert a larger commercial team and capture fleet into contracts that comfortably service the loan.
Sources checked:
Bdaily · Apollo3D Primark case study · Apollo3D building management · Yorkshire Post · British Business Bank · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
