Software firm acquires competitor to boost UK position
A field management software provider has bolstered its position in the UK following its acquisition of a competitor.
Birmingham’s Joblogic’s subscriber base has increased by 50% overnight after purchasing Coventry-based Protean Software.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, has absorbed Protean’s client base of more than 10,000 users, as well as its 50 employees joining the Joblogic team, which is located at the company’s central Birmingham offices.
Field service software is said to help contractors save time, increase productivity, and achieve rapid growth by centralising service operations in one piece of software.
Joblogic says the software ensures “seamless communication” between back offices, field engineers, and customers, leading to transparency and overall efficiency.
The acquisition has been funded by internal cash flow and a new line of credit from CIBC Innovation Banking. It’s the firms first major transaction following Joblogic’s recent investment by Axiom Equity.
Joblogic’s CEO James Whatmore said: “It’s a strategic acquisition that’s going to accelerate our growth goals for the UK FSM market. We wanted to do this deal for a number of reasons. Most importantly we’re scaling up our own teams and trying to hire the best people in the industry. We respect Protean and what they’ve built over the past 20 years.
“We know that their team is experienced, built on integrity and is culturally aligned with ours. They’re client focused and that’s important to us. Also, their customer base is very close to ours. This gives us high confidence in making our collaboration a success.
“We can offer them enhanced support on their current product with an exciting option to move to the best cloud FSM product on the market when they’re ready.”
Bob Anderson, Protean’s long-term chief executive officer, who is stepping down following the conclusion of the deal said: “I’m delighted that our business has been acquired by a company with similar focus and values to ours and I am confident that the employees and customers of Protean could not be in better hands.
“The combined knowledge of Joblogic and Protean creates a company unmatched in the field service management software sector globally.”
Joblogic is backed by Axiom Equity, the UK B2B SaaS investor, with debt financing provided by CIBC Innovation Banking. Joblogic was advised by FRP Advisory, leading Midlands’ law firm, Fieldfisher (Andy Lawton Smith) and James Cowper Kreston (Financial and Tax). The sellers were advised by Thierry Levenq (Connecting Advisors), and Shoosmiths (legal). CIBC Innovation Banking was advised by Cooleys (legal).
Corporate Partner at Fieldfisher, Andy Lawton-Smith, led the Birmingham M&A advisory team and said: “Having advised Joblogic on its recent growth equity investment from Axiom, we are pleased to have assisted the team on completing its first major acquisition in its growth strategy.
“We have seen that companies offering state-of-the art software to streamline business operations have a distinct advantage in a competitive business services market and we are fortunate to be able to offer some of the UK’s leading expertise in tech sector M&A”.
