56. Kerv Group

Revenue: £74.5m (+48.7%)

Staff: N/A

Cloud and digital services outfit Kerv has been on an M&A drive in the past three years, adding around 400 employees and almost £30m in revenue as of its most recent set of results.

CTO Rufus Grig and co-founder Alastair Mills spoke to CRN in January about how Kerv's differentiated M&A strategy which has helped the MSP jump from No.94 last year to No. 55 in this year's ranking.

"M&A is typically based on two things: multiple arbitrage, particularly when you get a high valuation yourself impacting your equity value, and cost synergies where you put similar companies together to reduce headcount costs, Grigg said.

"We've had a very different strategy to drive consistent double-digit organic growth, in contrast to some peers who have struggled.

"But our aim was consistent organic growth to catch up. The best way we believe is to focus on employee engagement and customer experience - those are the top priorities rather than multiple arbitration and cost-cutting."