By Elliot Gulliver-Needham
Lloyds Bank’s private equity arm LDC has exited its investment in London-based cloud and digital services provider Kerv after three years in the firm.
As part of the transaction, Bridgepoint Development Capital has invested in Kerv for a majority shareholding and LDC has reinvested £30m to support the continued growth of the business.
Within the departure, Bridgepoint Development Capital has taken a majority shareholding in Kerv, with LDC reinvesting £30m into the firm.
Kerv was started in July 2020 with £22m of funding from LDC after founder Alastair Mills and Mike Ing merged three businesses. It has since invested a further £20m in the firm for other acquisitions.
Over the three years, Kerv increased revenues from £20m to £100m, saw its headcount increase from 100 to 700 and grew EBITDA from £3m to almost £20m.
Alastair Mills, co-founder and executive chair at Kerv, said: “In 2020 we had an ambition to create a technology business that truly put customers and employees first, recognising this is the key to long-term, sustainable growth, and I’m proud to say we’ve achieved that goal.
“LDC understood our vision and got behind us from the start. Over the past three and a half years, they’ve provided additional funding to support acquisitions and helped us to scale significantly, all without losing sight of what makes us special – our people.
“Kerv is still less than four years old and so I’m really excited to see what’s possible with the support of both LDC and Bridgepoint in this next chapter.”
