Krome Technologies boss: ‘We’re aiming for £30m this year’

Rupert Mills tells CRN that after the opening of its first US branch, the MSP is gunning for organic growth aided by AI

Krome Technologies is backing its organic growth potential as it aims for £30m 2025 revenues off its own merit.

The Surrey-HQ MSP made its first venture across the pond with the opening of a US office in January 2024.

The expansion gave Krome the ability to transact directly in the region with its customers.

The 132-employee firm now operates in the UK, the Netherlands and the US.

Its next milestone, director Rupert Mills explains, centres on organic growth.

“For the next 12 months we are going to look to grow the business,” Mills tells CRN.

“We spent 2023/24 modernising internal systems, getting things in place and transitioning the way we work.

“In 2026 we're aiming to try and capitalise on that and try and grow between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in revenue.

“Last year we had revenues of £25.1m. This year we’re aiming for closer to £30m.”

Growth strategy

Krome launched its own SOC in 2023 and is now doing a lot of work around cybersecurity and data governance as a result.

“Those will be big drivers for us in terms of growth over the next year,” Mills claims.

“We're also seeing demand for AI readiness assessments and AI assistants, and we’re aiming to do more of that.

“Instead of traditional marketing events, we've started running more expert sessions, where we do training for customers.

“That's been very successful for us, so marketing to new customers in that same way is something we're aiming to do as well.”

AI - revenue generator and business challenge

Krome has dabbled in AI through building private LLMs and helping introduce its customers to the technology.

After getting enquiries from a number of clients on AI projects, Krome found a sweet spot in helping customers find the ROI in AI projects rather than just ticking a box.

“We get a lot of that. So we've been doing some advisory work around it, doing training sessions.

“I'm not sure it's contributing massively to business in terms of finance at the moment, but AI contributes a lot in terms of conversation.

“I would say it's a business driver in a lot of conversations. And it's potentially an enabler for other projects.”

He adds the MSP is also getting involved in the data governance side of things, the use of data for AI, and helping customers make sure their data security is correct.

“That's a definite revenue generator,” he says.

However, AI comes with its challenges, namely around cybersecurity and expertise.

“AI is certainly bringing people challenges with its increasing need for cybersecurity, but it's also bringing challenges with finding the right skills and people that understand how to do things with it in the right ways and help businesses to implement it correctly.

“So resourcing around AI is going to be a point.

“Defending around AI is also going to be a point because it brings a whole different set of vectors into the business.”

Possible M&A?

While Mills is confident in Krome’s ability to grow organically, he doesn’t rule out the option of M&A, telling CRN he is “passively looking”.

In order for the MSP to take its wallet out for its first ever acquisition, Mills highlights customer expansion as the key differentiator.

“We have a good 132 people, but a very small sales and business management team.

“Acquiring someone where there's potentially a small business doing sales revenue, but outsourcing the professional services would fit very nicely into us, because we could insource that professional services and start servicing a wider client base.”

And not even the possibility of private equity entices Mills as he continues to hammer home Krome’s promising organic growth.

“We were chatting to some advisors back in early 2023 who were talking about trying to sell us. But we didn’t want to be sold. We wanted to try and grow organically.

“Then they looked at our numbers and said, ‘yeah, actually, maybe acquiring might be the way to go’.

“If the right PE came along. People talk about patient capital these days, which is, instead of private equity, you've got people that look to invest in the business longer term and invest in a minority stake.

“So maybe something like that might be worthwhile. But, in terms of being acquired, that's not on our immediate roadmap. We're aiming to grow first.”