SEP acquires minority stake in Redwood

UK-based Redwood Technologies Group, a provider of communications technology and cloud contact center solutions, has secured 25 million pounds in funding. The investor was Scottish Equity Partners.

Correction: The previous title of this news report misstated the nature of the funding; SEB acquired a minority stake, not majority stake, in Redwood. That has since been corrected. 

PRESS RELEASE

LONDON, 16 January 2018

Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has completed a £25 million investment in Redwood Technologies Group (Redwood), acquiring a minority stake in the UK-headquartered international provider of communications technology and cloud contact centre solutions.
Redwood has experienced strong and profitable organic growth, with revenues increasing by 30% in both 2017 and 2016. SEP’s involvement, the first external investment that Redwood has accepted in its 25-year history, will accelerate a global expansion strategy that focuses on Asia-Pac for 2018, with a regional office opening in Tokyo during Q1.

Redwood owns the cloud communications provider Content Guru, which in 2016 received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation. Content Guru operates primarily in the $2.8bn [1] contact centre technology marketplace, a sector set to grow by 22% in 2018.

Originally founded in 1993 by brothers Sean and Martin Taylor in Bracknell, Berkshire, Redwood has deployed communications solutions to more than 50 countries from its offices in Europe and North America.

The Group’s storm® platforms provide ‘mission-critical communications’ to a blue-chip client base of utilities, travel, financial services and retail organisations, as well as government and public sector bodies.

Andrew Davison, a Partner at SEP, who joins the board of Redwood commented: “We first met Redwood over 3 years ago and have tracked their impressive increase in market share which now sees them firmly placed amongst the leading global cloud based contact centre infrastructure vendors. Redwood is a fantastic addition to our enterprise software investment portfolio and we are looking forward to working with the founders and wider team to further scale the business internationally.”

Sean Taylor, CEO and Co-founder of the Redwood Technologies Group, added: “Redwood Technologies Group has enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years, driven by the increasing adoption of cloud services by enterprise and public sector. This investment will ensure we continue to grow strongly, both in existing markets and new territories. We selected our investment partner very carefully and SEP’s strong financial track record and the culture of its team really impressed us.”

About Scottish Equity Partners
Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) is one of the UK’s leading late stage venture capital and growth equity investors.
Operating from offices in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, SEP makes equity investments across a range of sectors, including software, consumer internet, e-commerce, healthcare and tech-enabled service businesses. Its principal focus is on high growth companies in the UK and Europe. SEP has a long and successful track record with over 150 investments made and 130 exits and was named UK Venture Capital and Growth Equity Firm of the Year for 2017 at the Unquote British Private Equity Awards.
SEP has been an active shareholder in some of Europe’s most successful technology companies including luxury fashion destination Matchesfashion.com and Skyscanner, the global travel search business sold to Ctrip for £1.5 billion. Recent investments include leading scientific informatics software and services provider Dotmatics. For further information see www.sep.co.uk

About Redwood Technologies Group
Redwood Technologies Group is a leading international technology provider of cloud communications and customer engagement services.

Operating across multiple communications channels including voice, email, chat, web forms, social, text, video and Internet of Things, services are built using Redwood’s intellectual property and delivered through Content Guru’s global network of storm cloud platforms. Hundreds of the world’s largest organisations rely on mission-critical communications and information services from storm. Recent industry recognition includes the 2016 UK IT Award for Best Use of Cloud Services, the 2017 UK Cloud Award for Best Digital Transformation Project and the 2017 Computing Digital Technology Leaders Award for Best Public Sector Digital Project.

Source: https://www.pehub.com/2018/01/sep-acquires-minority-stake-in-redwood/

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