BSL makes first acquisition under new private equity owner

August Equity-backed comms VAR acquires contact centre as-a-service provider

Comms VAR Business Systems (BSL) has acquired contact centre as-a-service firm acrinax - just months after receiving backing from private equity firm August Equity.

London-based acrinax bills itself as a customer experience specialist offering contact centre as a service (CCaaS) and workforce engagement management solutions.

The firm supports enterprise customers in moving their contact centres to the cloud and has developed its own chat translation solution for global enterprise customers.

The company was founded by former NTT Data execs Damien Bowen, David Baughan and Andrew Jacobs, who will all join BSL's senior leadership team.

BSL claims that the acquisition will bring a team of talented consultants and engineers as well as business leaders with decades of contact centre experience.

The deal marks the first for BSL after selling a controlling stake in the business to private equity firm August Equity in January.

Founded in 1987, BSL offers enterprise comms solutions and turned over £11.9m in revenues for its year ending 31 December 2019.

CEO of BSL, Adam Kantor, said: "Joining forces with acrinax is a logical step for us and brings additional depth to what we can offer to our customers as they look to transform their contact centres with best of breed solutions.

"This is a very exciting day for us, and we are proud to announce that AJ, Damian, David, and the rest of the team are joining the family. This was a strategic decision for us, and we will continue to look for selective acquisitions that bring unique strengths and accelerate our growth journey."

Damian Bowen, director of acrinax, added: "The coming together of acrinax with BSL will enable us to deliver even more strategic and transformational contact centre solutions to our combined customers. Migrating to the cloud is right at the top their priority list and this partnership will enable us to deliver this strategic transformation for all of them. This, along with providing new opportunities for our staff, is why David, AJ and I are extremely excited at the prospect of working with Adam and the whole team at BSL."