Alex Heslip & Chris Earle

Former CCO & CEO (Verastar)

Legacy

Senior leadership team of UK Business Services Aggregator, Verastar, which they scaled through 20+ acquisitions and exited via Private Equity secondary buy-out at a valuation in excess of £400m in 2020

Strategy

To harness the teams experiences at Verastar by building a new SME-focused managed services group covering IT Support, cloud services, connectivity and communications

Targeting build of a platform that reaches the scale range of £7m-10m EBITDA, filling a market-gap for upper-mid-market consolidators and private equity

Transaction type

Minority Investment
Capital raise
Advisory MBI – Management Buy-In
Advisory Buy-Build – Accretive acquisitions originated/structured/funded
Advisory Refinance – Maximising liquidity and cost of funds

Delivered

2023 – Acquisition of £5m turnover, RISC IT, a cloud services platform
2024 – Acquisition of £3m turnover Novem, an IT Managed Service Provider
2024 – Refinance senior credit and growth capital investment from TDC

How did IC help?

Market research
Target outreach
Target negotiation
Deal Structuring
FDD & LDD project management

Fundraising – equity, loan notes and senior debt
Post-deal board support
Stakeholder management of funders
Succession planning
Rolling acquisition targeting/planning

Quote

After exiting Verastar, I spent a lot of time talking to the market to find partners able to help on my next project. Independence were the only party I spoke to where there was very clear alignment of expertise, interest and risk. In the short time we have been working together they have made great progress originating and structuring off-market opportunities and I look forward to counting on their support as we build the group over the years ahead