BGF has invested GBP3 million of growth capital into Cardiff-headquartered DevOpsGroup, a UK professional services company specialising in DevOps engineering consultancy and training.
This deal represents BGF’s first investment in Wales since it announced the launch of its Cardiff office earlier this year.
Founded in 2013 by chief executive James Smith and CTO Steve Thair, DevOpsGroup empowers digital transformation through high-performing IT capabilities for both enterprises, including ASOS, Admiral Insurance, BAE Systems, and Vodafone, and scale-ups.
In five years, the business has grown to a team of 70 specialists, based in Cardiff and London, with revenues of more than GBP7 million.
BGF’s initial investment of GBP3 million growth capital has been used to support the acquisition of AgileSnap, a Cardiff based British Computer Society (BCS) accredited training organisation. Specialising in Agile delivery methods and practices, the acquisition expands the groups’ capability to deliver certified Agile and DevOps training. Agile Snap CEO, James Harvey, will lead its Academy Business Unit, to deliver on DevOpsGroups’ commitment to close the IT skills gap across the industry.
To strengthen its position as a fast-growing business, DevOpsGroup has also announced the appointment Adam Hale as Chairman, following an introduction by BGF, bringing nearly 30 years of experience working with technology-centric businesses to help them become global leaders. Coco Brown, former President, COO and Board Director of Taos and now CEO of The Athena Alliance, an organisation dedicated to advancing diversity in the boardroom, has been appointed as the group’s first international board advisor. Paul Heywood, Vice President of Worldwide Sales & Business Strategy at Oracle, is a long-standing advisor to the group and becomes a Non-Executive Director.
The board is completed by the addition of Chief Financial Officer, James Henderson, who brings more than 20 years of experience from PricewaterhouseCoopers and venture capital investors, and Alex Garfitt from BGF.
BGF, which became the first and only investment company to be honoured for Innovation in the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise this year, has backed more than 70 technology companies including UKCloud, Roc Technology, Vyssion and AIM-listed Adept4 plc.
The deal was led for BGF by Alex Garfitt, who will join the board of the company, Edwin Davies and Dan Tapson.
James Smith, CEO, DevOpsGuys, says: “The past five years have been incredible: we’ve employed a talented and ambitious team, worked on fantastic projects with industry leading companies, and established strong partnerships. There is a significant opportunity accelerate our growth plan by expanding the team and broadening our service offering – BGF’s backing means that we can do this at a much faster pace that we would otherwise have been able to do.”
Alex Garfitt, BGF, says: “Under the leadership of James, Steve and the management team, DevOpsGuys have achieved a huge amount in a relatively short space of time. They have focused on cementing their leading position and reputation in a specialist market, and as such have built solid foundation to scale up further.
“We’re delighted that this is our first investment in Cardiff since we announced the opening of our permanent base in the City, a move that we hope will enable us to provide funding to a greater number of ambitious Welsh companies to support their growth plans.”