SafetyCulture started in 2004 as a safety checklist app and grew bottom-up, through frontline workers rather than head-office buyers, to a $2.7 billion valuation in 2023. Growth then slowed and its valuation was later reported at $2.5 billion. Founder Luke Anear returned as CEO in February 2026, and in August 2026 the company rebranded as Mitti, an AI operations platform that also sells business insurance.
Key takeaways
- SafetyCulture grew bottom-up: frontline workers used the app first, then pulled their employers in.
- August 2023: a $34 million raise at a $2.7 billion valuation. Later reported: $75 million at $2.5 billion.
- Founder Luke Anear returned as CEO in February 2026 and rebranded the company as Mitti on 11 August 2026.
- Mitti serves more than two million frontline workers across 80,000 organizations, and has written almost A$200 million of insurance premium in Australia.
In 2004, in a family garage in far north Queensland, Luke Anear started building a safety checklist app.
Not for the head of safety at a big company. For the person on the worksite with a clipboard.
That decision, to build for the frontline worker rather than the buyer in head office, is how SafetyCulture became one of Australia's most valuable private tech companies. It's also, twenty years later, part of why it had to reinvent itself.
How did SafetyCulture grow from the shop floor?
Bottom-up.
Frontline workers found the app useful and used it. Once enough people in a business relied on it, the business paid. That's land and expand from the shop floor, and it's a form of product-led growth.
In The Subscription Playbook, the first of the five land and expand factors is an attractive initial offer. Don't try to sell a big upfront deal. Give people a way to try it and prove it works. A checklist app on a worker's phone is about as low-friction as an initial offer gets.
It worked spectacularly.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2004 | Started in Luke Anear's family garage |
| August 2023 | Filings revealed a $34 million raise at a $2.7 billion valuation, up $600 million in 27 months |
| November 2024 | Anear announced he'd step down as CEO after 20 years, becoming executive chair |
| Later | Valuation reported to have fallen by $200 million to $2.5 billion, in a $75 million raise that brought in AirTree |
| February 2026 | Anear returned as CEO to rebuild what Startup Daily described as a loss-making business as an AI-first company |
| 11 August 2026 | SafetyCulture rebranded as Mitti |
Why did SafetyCulture become Mitti?
Because customers had already outgrown the name.
Anear explained: "Our customers have told us for years they're using us for much more than safety."
Think about that. The checklist that started with safety inspections had spread into much more of how frontline teams work. The product had expanded. The name hadn't.
So Mitti now pitches an AI-driven operations platform for frontline work, used by more than two million frontline workers across 80,000 organizations.
My take
I've lived a version of this. Our first product at my previous company was an e-learning platform for architecture and engineering students. It did well, but the bigger opportunity was software for the architects and property developers those students would become. So we built that software, and that's when things took off. Sometimes your first product is just the door into your real market.
What's the insurance business about?
This is the part I find most interesting.
Mitti also expanded into SME commercial insurance, using its customers' safety and operations data to price risk. It has written almost A$200 million in cumulative gross written premium in Australia and is licensed across 51 US states and jurisdictions.
That's a second revenue line built on top of the subscription. The software collects data about how safely a business operates. That data makes the business a better (or worse) insurance risk. So Mitti can offer insurance priced on evidence, not guesswork.
In the book, the insurance model is about selling peace of mind on a recurring basis. Mitti has taken that literally.
What are customers really using you for?
Paste reviews, emails or support tickets and get the pain points and jobs-to-be-done hiding in them.
Was the rebrand the right call?
It's too early to say. The rebrand was announced in August 2026, and there's no public data yet on what it's done to growth.
But the logic is sound, and so is the warning.
Bottom-up adoption can build a unicorn. The original use case can also become a ceiling. When the name, the pitch and the buyer all say "safety," it's hard to sell to the head of operations, even if their team already uses you every day.
The book's chapter on product/market fit makes a point that applies here: fit isn't permanent. Markets move, and what customers value moves with them. The companies that last keep checking.
What can you steal from SafetyCulture?
- Ask customers what else they use your product for. That might be your bigger market. In the book I say it plainly: your customers define success, not you. Ask them.
- Build for the person who does the work. Give frontline users a tool they love, free or cheap to start. They'll pull their employer in.
- Use the data your service creates. Mitti's insurance pricing is an example. What do you know about your customers that someone would pay for? (Check privacy rules first.)
- Don't let your name cap your market. If your positioning describes a smaller business than the one you're running, fix it.
- Add a second revenue line before growth stalls, not after. It's far easier to build from momentum than from a standstill.
If you suspect customers are using you for something you haven't noticed, the customer pain-point analyser can pull it out of reviews and support tickets. Then test how strong your fit really is with the product/market fit survey scorer.
What to do next
Email your ten most active customers this week. Ask one question: "What do you use us for that we don't advertise?"
Their answers might be your next product, or your next name.
Product/Market Fit Survey ScorerRun the Sean Ellis test and score it.Open the free tool →For more on how AI changes defensibility for companies like this, read moats in the AI era, and for the growth method behind it, land and expand.
Frequently asked questions
What is bottom-up adoption?
Bottom-up adoption is when individual users start using a product on their own, often free or cheap, before any manager approves a purchase. As more people in a company use it, the business eventually pays for a team or company-wide plan. It's a form of product-led growth, and it works best for tools workers love using every day.
Why would a successful company rebrand?
Usually because its name describes a smaller business than the one it has become. SafetyCulture's founder said customers had been using it for much more than safety for years. When the name limits what buyers think you do, it can cap growth. A rebrand is expensive, so it only makes sense when the new positioning opens a bigger market.
How can a subscription business use its data to create new revenue?
Look at what your service records about customers and ask who would pay to use it. Mitti uses safety and operations data to price commercial insurance risk. A gym could use attendance data to offer corporate wellness reporting. Check privacy rules and customer consent carefully before you use customer data in a new way.
Is it a bad sign when a founder returns as CEO?
Not necessarily. It often happens when a company needs a bigger strategic change than a new CEO feels able to make, as with SafetyCulture in 2026. What matters is what the returning founder changes. A return with no new strategy is just nostalgia.
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Robert Coorey, MBA
Robert is the author of The Subscription Playbook and Feed a Starving Crowd and a Director at BPAG Accountants in Sydney. More about Robert.
Sources
- Startup Daily, SafetyCulture rebrands after 22 years as AI comes to the fore (11 Aug 2026)
- Startland News, SafetyCulture rebrands to Mitti (Aug 2026)
- Mitti, SafetyCulture becomes Mitti media release (Aug 2026)
- Startup Daily, Workplace software unicorn SafetyCulture's valuation jumps $600 million on $34 million raise (14 Aug 2023)
Facts and prices checked 27 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.