Mid-market private equity house LDC has funded the GBP30 million merger of three cloud-based managed services businesses – DoubleEdge Professional Services, Foehn and Metaphor IT – to form Kerv.
Mid-market private equity house LDC has funded the GBP30 million merger of three cloud-based managed services businesses – DoubleEdge Professional Services, Foehn and Metaphor IT – to form Kerv.
LDC was advised by RSM (FDD), Armstrong (CDD) and DLA Piper (legal). The aim of the new business will be to drive organic growth, as well as identify add-on acquisitions, supported by follow-on funding from LDC, according to the firm.
DoubleEdge Professional Services deals with UC, voice, data, mobility and compliance; Foehn with R&D team, Cloud UC and Contact Centre provider, while Metaphor IT does cloud services, digital workspaces and IT managed services. The group was brought together by Alastair Mills, Six Degrees Group founder and former CEO, and Mike Ing, former COO at Six Degrees Group.
Commenting on the timing of the company launch amid the impact of the current Coronavirus pandemic Mike Ing, managing director of Kerv, said: “Since we sketched out our CX-focussed investment plan towards the end of 2019, we’ve seen a dramatic shift to cloud-based remote working at an unprecedented scale.”
Kerv has a team of 100 employees across offices in central London; Richmond, Greater London and Vigo, Spain. The company has current revenues close to GBP 20 million. Kerv’s management will consist of Alastair Mills as executive chairman; Mike Ing, managing director and Andrew Marshall, group CFO. The management team of each of the three businesses all remain with Kerv and join the senior team.
“Our goal is not to chase short-term profit gains through aggressive cost cutting as we acquire complementary businesses, said Alastair Mills, executive chairman of Kerv. “In a technology market that continues to consolidate rapidly through M&A, we feel now is the right time for a change in focus and culture. LDC’s investment in our business during this unprecedented period is testament to the strength of our proposition,” he added.
