UKFast in £40m funding deal

CLOUD infrastructure business UKFast has agreed a £40m funding deal in a move it’s CEO says will take the firm to ‘the next level’.
 
The Manchester-headquartered business, which supplies cloud and managed hosting to more than 5,000 customers, will use the £40m bank loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland to accelerate UKFast’s growth through acquisition.

Chief executive Lawrence Jones said: “If you are growing a business organically, you have to hang on to your customers. I never want to lose this focus on customer care and at the same time, I am excited about the opportunity to make some acquisitions to help bolster growth and add capabilities and also grow our customer base.”

£30m will be drawn down immediately with the option to take a further £10m in the future.

Jones, who has immediate plans for the money, said: “We have a couple of businesses that we are interested in and I welcome anyone who has a business that might benefit from joining forces with UKFast to get in contact with us.

“There are fast-growing US organisations in our market with very deep pockets. We aren’t going to sit back and watch them take over. We know the areas our clients want us to develop in and we are responding to their demands.”

The £34m turnover company has more than 260 staff across offices in Manchester, London and Glasgow.

It has reported double digit organic growth every year since its inception in 1999 and added more than £10m in recurring revenue in the last two years.

Alongside its product range, UKFast has four fully owned data centres and its cybersecurity arm Secarma specialises in ethical hacking and penetration testing.

Stephen Lewis, regional director of corporate banking at Royal Bank of Scotland said: “UKFast is an ambitious, fast-growing business with a proven track record and a first-class management team. We are delighted to have been selected as UKFast’s sole relationship bank and recognise these are truly exciting times for the tech sector in which it operates.

“We look forward to building a broad-based banking relationship and supporting Lawrence and his team as they execute their medium-term strategy.”

Martin O’Shea of Addleshaw Goddard advised UKFast on the deal.

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