£75m PE investment in mobile workforce technology business
Leeds-based mobile workforce technology company, BigChange, has raised over £75m from Great Hill Partners, the private equity firm behind Wayfair, ZoomInfo and Reward Gateway.
BigChange’s managers, led by founder and CEO Martin Port, will retain a significant minority stake in the company, which is now valued at £100m.
This team will continue to lead the business as it moves into the next phase of development.
A substantial tranche of the investment will be put towards innovation and product development as the company expands into new territories, and drives additional growth within the UK to maintain its trajectory across valuable markets such as the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.
BigChange has experienced 50% average year-over-year revenue growth since inception. Port, a serial entrepreneur, founded the software-as-a-service company in 2013.
BigChange’s field service management technology is the core workflow tool for businesses employing field service technicians and operators.
The company’s tools provide job scheduling, customer invoicing and payments automation, mobile workforce management, and client engagement.
It serves 1,500 small to enterprise clients spanning more than 20 industries, from plant hire to drainage and waste, and social housing to food service.
Port said: “I founded BigChange to revolutionise mobile workforce management and bring it into the 21st century.
“Our platform eliminates paperwork, dramatically cuts carbon, creates efficiency, promotes safer driving and means that engineers are spending less time on the roads or filling out forms and more time completing jobs.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with Great Hill and leverage their successful track-record scaling vertical and enterprise software companies both in the UK and overseas.”
Drew Loucks, a partner at Great Hill Partners, added: “Unlike niche players that focus on smaller customers and specific sub-verticals, Martin and his accomplished team have built a flexible, all-in-one platform for field service professionals and operators.
“BigChange’s technology is differentiated not only by its ability to serve commercial and residential clients of nearly any scale or vertical, but also by its award-winning product development and customer service capabilities.”
KPMG advised on the investment deal. Graham Pearce, partner at KPMG, said: “This landmark deal demonstrates the international appeal of the UK technology scene, and it’s great to see BigChange attract such a high calibre investor in Great Hill Partners.”
