A business which was formed back in 2004 by way of a management buy-out has secured £2.5 million from the Business Growth Fund (BGF).
Celaton, which provides software used for customer correspondence, financial documents, employee records and legal matters, will now look to grow its sales and marketing infrastructure to increase sales in both the public and private sectors.
The company was founded in 2004 by Andrew Anderson and Gary Grant through the management buy-out (MBO) of Redrock Technologies and Netstore, and then the acquisition of DG Tech.
Its lead product, inSTREAM, is said to reduce costs, improve efficiency and is used by the retail, travel, insurance and professional services sectors.
The business currently has 60 staff at its three UK sites, with its headquarters located in Milton Keynes. For the year to date June 2012, the firm posted revenues of £2.2 million.
Anderson, co-founder and CEO of Celaton, comments, ‘We’re keen to maximise our growth in our core sectors and penetrate further into the public sector where we know there is a significant need to improve productivity and reduce costs.
‘Our management team is critical to our success and I am delighted to welcome Tim Bittleston and Tim Whittard to the board at this key stage in Celaton’s development.’
As part of the deal, Bittleston was introduced to Celaton via the BGF’s Talent Network, and will now serve as Chairman. In addition, BGF investment director Whittard will also take a seat on the board.
‘Celaton has the enviable combination of a truly disruptive software offering and a hugely experienced management team and as such, we were convinced that it is a company with huge growth potential and ready to take on expansion capital in order to take the business to the next stage,’ Whittard says.
‘It has a strong pipeline of prospects and the strengthening of the Celaton sales team will only increase this.’
The investment is the BGF’s Midlands regional team and the fifth it has closed in the IT-enabled service business sector. Celaton will now sit alongside similar companies such as online employee reward scheme Benefax, telecoms and data service provider GCI Com and document collaboration software firm SkyDox in BGF’s portfolio.
The BGF is an independent company with capital of up to £2.5 billion, backed by five of the UK’s main banking groups – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, and Standard Chartered. It typically invests between £2 million and £10 million in return for a minimum of 10 per cent equity.
