Cooper Parry accelerates towards £250m target with double swoop

Ade Cheatham of Cooper Parry

Cooper Parry has taken a major step towards achieving its £250m growth ambitions by snapping up a duo of likeminded firms.

The fast-growing accountancy disruptor, which has bases at East Midlands Airport and Birmingham, has completed deals to acquire tech-based accountancy firm ihorizon and Acclivity, a boutique advisory company specialising in accountancy, tax and consultancy to entrepreneurs and high growth early stage businesses.

More than 40 staff have joined Cooper Parry’s Tech and High Growth team as a result of the deals – taking the firm’s total UK headcount to over 535.

Cooper Parry is aiming to become a £250m business – representing five-fold growth – by 2025.

Cooper Parry CEO Ade Cheatham said: “These two deals reinforce our determination to disrupt the Mid-tier like no other. We’ve been bold with our ambitious growth plans and these two high quality firms give us an amazing start to the year. The culture and talent within the firms are a great fit for CP. They also add a brilliant new dynamic to our fast-growing presence in the THG space.”

Steve Leith, head of Tech & High Growth at the firm, said: “Bringing ihorizon and Acclivity into CP means our specialist team can now deliver a full life-cycle solution from startup through scaleup and into exit. There’s no other equivalent team in the Mid-tier or the Big 4 operating at this scale and so deeply inside the high-growth ecosystem. Startups will be able to make the seamless transition from a specialist digital-first solution into full service scaleup support specifically designed for venture stage companies.”

Pratik Sampat, CEO at ihorizon, said: “Everything felt right about joining Cooper Parry. The CP team is already well established in the market supporting scaleups and we have a shared vision to create the go-to team for Founders and CFOs of high potential and high growth companies. This coming together is great news for our team and our clients.”

Acclivity founder Asif Ahmed, now head of Early Stage, CP Tech & High Growth, added: “Given the number of clients we’ve seen transition from Acclivity’s early stage portfolio into CP’s specialist scale-up team, it was a no-brainer to join forces to create a market-leading proposition. It means early stage companies don’t have to change relationships as they scale and as their finance challenges become more complex. It’s a win, win.”

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