Bullish VAR Ramesys has snagged a further £14.9m funding from Lloyds Development Capital (LDC).

The education specialist is sitting pretty with a £200m-plus pipeline of public sector contracts over the next five years, mainly through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative, but is keen to grow further.

Speaking to CRN, Mark Chambers, chief executive of Ramesys, said: “The BSF programme is gaining momentum, whether it is due to an impending change of government I do not know, but there is a massive influx of new local authorities tendering contracts. The size of the market is going to double over the next 18 months.”

Chambers said he is looking to grow Ramesys’ headcount.

“We went back to Lloyds and said we could either continue to win three deals a year and bid for five, or we could build a bigger team and win even more. LDC gave us more working capital.

“We started this year with 220 people, and will end with almost 300,” he said. “Based on our pipeline, I think we will be taking on a further 200 people.”

He said the funding will last three years and give him ‘headroom’ to look at growing other areas of the business.

“We are looking outside England and towards emerging countries that are behind where we are in terms of investment in education. The business is going to be profitable for the next five to 10 years and we have proved we were worth taking a risk on,” he said.