YFM Equity invests £2.75m in hosted communications platform
YFM Equity Partners, the specialist private equity fund manager which has offices in Leeds and Sheffield, has invested £2.75m to support the growth of Sipsynergy, a cloud collaboration solutions provider to SMEs.
The funding will be used to accelerate the growth in the customer base through expansion of the sales and support teams.
The Hertfordshire-based business has developed a solution which provides a range of communications technologies to SMEs on a cost effective basis. Sipsynergy has been working closely with technology firm Cisco to create the solution which is sold on a white label basis through IT and telecoms resellers and managed service providers.
As part of the investment, YFM has secured a number of senior hires to drive the growth strategy together with co-founders John Fox and Barnaby Ritchley. These include appointing a new CEO, operations director and chairman.
Ian Waterfield, investment director at YFM, said: “The shift to the cloud is accelerating, providing smaller businesses with an opportunity to access technologies and services previously only available to large corporates. Sipsynergy has created a great cloud-hosted solution for SMEs and evolved a partnership with Cisco which provides a clear route to market.
“We are delighted to be working closely with both the existing and new members of the team to deliver the growth and realise Sipsynergy’s value aspirations.”
John Fox, co-founder of Sipsynergy, added: “The investment by YFM comes at the right time for Sipsynergy and will enable us to scale the business to meet demand from end customers and channel partners for hosted telephone solutions.
“YFM’s continued support will be key in driving our future growth as we look to develop our offering and customer base and I look forward to working with our new team to ensure our continued success.”
Andrew Songhurst and John O’Gara of Sentio provided due diligence to YFM.
Duncan Firman, corporate partner at Gordons, advised YFM.
