Saepio founder Rob Pooley steps back into board role ahead of new venture
Pooley exclusively reveals to CRN his next step after nearly ten years founding Saepio
Saepio founder and solutions director Rob Pooley today steps away from his role and moves into a board position as he pursues a new opportunity.
Speaking exclusively to CRN, Pooley reveals he is heading for consulting services and technology solutions company, Prime8 as co-founder and solutions director.
What started as ambitious conversations between former Softcat colleagues in 2015 turned into a fully-fledged start-up by 2017.
Starting from humble beginnings, funded from their own back pockets, founders Pooley and Andy Pitt mapped out plans for their new business from a Vodka Revolution bar until securing their first office space.
Since then, Saepio has flown, which led the cybersecurity specialist to bring on people with scaling experience to handle its exceptional growth rate.
In 2024 Saepio announced it had been acquired by Amir Nooriala who stepped in as CEO to spearhead this growth.
The company has since made its first acquisition with the buyout of penetration testing specialist, Ruptura in November 2025.
Today, Saepio has grown from £25m in revenues and 60 staff in 2023 to more than £60m and a headcount of 100 in 2026, and an EBITDA of £5m.
Over the last two years, Pooley has been handing over the management to the new owners.
But he leaves with high hopes for the company he started.
“This company is going to absolutely fly. It's on this unstoppable path,” he tells CRN.
“The culture is so strong, the market for cyber is so strong. Where we're positioned is perfect. Our relationships with vendors are great. Our mission was to build the UK's number one cyber partner. We're not there yet, but we are going to be.”
Why Pooley is stepping back
He highlights his view of how people are the heart of businesses, and central to their success.
“I believe people are everything.
“Looking back at Softcat, the people are what made it special.
“And the people at Saepio are what made that business so special.
“If you can get a high performing team, then any company can be successful.”
Pooley explains he is passionate about building high performing teams, especially with the backdrop of record-high burnout statistics, costing the UK £100bn a year, according to a study by the Institute for Public Policy Research.
“People have always been important, but HR has always been considered back office and not the key decision makers.
“I think the importance of people in boardroom decision making and risk taking is going to become more important, and that's what Prime8 is all about.
“It's elevating the importance of people risk management and optimising the value of human capital.”
Pooley assures he will remain a part of the IT channel in his new role, but in a different capacity than his partner background.