Three-way merger creates £20m-revenue cloud provider

Six Degrees founder Alastair Mills has kickstarted a buy-and-build project with the acquisition and merger of three cloud firms.

DoubleEdge Professional Services, Foehn and Metaphor IT have been combined to create Kerv, which has annual sales nearing £20m, it claimed.

Mills, who will serve as executive chairman, said: "Customers want to buy a wider range of integrated solutions from a trusted partner whilst leveraging the power of cloud technologies.

"But they will only do so if those providers can continue to deliver excellent customer experience in this rapidly changing market. As we focus on organic growth, supplemented by carefully targeted acquisitions, we will not lose sight of our customer-first strategy."

The three acquired businesses do not disclose their sales in reports filed with Companies House.

Speaking to CRN in 2018, Metaphor founder Richard Callis said he expected the firm to hit revenues of £7m in the year ending 31 March 2019.

The management team of all three businesses will stay in place, Kerv said, and join managing director Mike Ing and CFO Andrew Marshall.

The combined business has 100 employees across offices in London and Vigo, Spain.

The Spanish base houses a development team, which Kerv says will create a platform that integrates third-party and propriety software to "deliver a rich user interface".

Mills said that he plans to continue acquiring businesses, with backing from private equity firm LDC.