Software services firm Advanced has received a £2bn private equity investment from BC Partners to support the company's ongoing growth.
“The funds from BC Partners will support Advanced’s rapid growth aspirations to become the number-one provider of business software solutions in the UK, whilst expanding its global footprint,” said Advanced CEO Gordon Wilson. Vista Equity Partners - which acquired Advanced in 2015 - will continue as an investor, holding a 50-50 share of the business with BC Partners.
Since 2015, Advanced has grown rapidly with over 900 new staff employed across three regional service hubs. It has also launched 14 cloud-based SaaS solutions and completed six acquisitions, further extending its offerings to UK mid-market organisations in the public, private and third sectors.
Wilson said: “Vista and BC Partners will work to support our growth, benefitting our customers through continued improvement of our cloud-based software solutions and extending our offering through M&A and further innovation.”
Nikos Stathopoulos, partner at BC Partners, said: “Advanced has the hallmarks we look for in our investments – a market leader in a growing sector, with a strong management team and multiple levers for growth, both organic and by acquisition.”
Advanced recently acquired specialist workforce management and resource scheduling software company Kirona, adding the solution to its ERP offering.
At the beginning of the year, Advanced signed a reseller agreement with GT Software as part of its plan to boost its range of modernisation and integration solutions. GT Software is a US-based specialist in IBM mainframe software, being the developer of Ivory Suite, a no-code drag-and-drop solution that can easily create API integrations for IBM mainframes.
