Monday 28. June 2021
Longship invests in The Cloud People
Longship Fund II (“Longship”) has as of June 23rd, 2021 entered into an agreement with the shareholders of The Cloud People AS (“TCP”) to invest growth capital into the company. Following the acquisition, Longship will own the majority of the shares, and the management team and key employees will hold the remaining shares. As of June 25th, Swedish Verano SpringStep was confirmed as the first add-on acquisition.
The Cloud People is a fast-growing IT service provider of Google Cloud Platform and ServiceNow cloud services in the Nordic region. TCP reported revenue of NOK 44 million in 2020. The company employs a total of 74 employees across Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Poland.
“We are impressed by The Cloud People’s ambitious growth strategy, forward-looking management team and a top line that is expected to double for the second year in a row. The company is uniquely positioned as a specialist in two of the fastest growing cloud platforms in the world. In addition, they have differentiated themselves from the competition in terms of how IT services can be delivered. Through its proprietary “smart resourcing” solution, both customer and employee experience are enhanced with increased predictability, transparency, and improved quality over cost. We are looking forward to support the management on its journey to scale and grow The Cloud People further”, says Espen Stenumgård, lead partner for Longship’s investment in TCP.
“We now have the funds to implement our major growth plans, both organically and through acquisitions. Over the next three to four years, our goal is to become Northern Europe’s leading partner for Google Cloud and ServiceNow”, says Bjørn Jarl, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of The Cloud People.
Part of the growth capital has already been employed, with Swedish Verano SpringStep as the first add-on acquisition. Verano SpringStep is a leading ServiceNow provider in the Swedish market, with revenues of SEK 21 million in 2020. The sellers will reinvest in the platform, owning The Cloud People alongside Longship, management, and key employees.
“We quickly saw that we share many things in common with TCP, such as strategy, values, our view of employees and clients, as well as the importance of having fun at work. All of this will ensure a smooth merger. In addition, TCP’s expertise on Google Cloud complements our services. It is very inspiring to become part of The Cloud People,” says Fredrik Jacobsen, CEO of Verano SpringStep. He adds that the merger strengthens the company’s market position in Sweden, both enabling faster organic growth and increased delivery capacity.
Longship is a transformational growth investor, developing successful lower mid-market companies into mature growth businesses with institutional and strategic value. We aim to create a scalable platform for sustainable growth and profitability in our portfolio companies and support them on their accelerated growth journey.
Longship was advised by Boston Consulting Group, Wiersholm, and EY.
For more information, please contact:
Espen Stenumgård, Partner, Longship AS
+47 99 24 46 78
espen.stenumgard@longship.no
Bjørn Jarl, Group CEO and Chairman of the Board, The Cloud People AS
+47 90 85 28 75
bjorn.jarl@thecloudpeople.com
About Longship:
Longship is a Norwegian private equity investor established in 2015 by an experienced team of investment professionals. Longship invests in companies with significant growth potential in the Norwegian lower mid-market, and are applying a transformational growth approach, organically and through M&A. The investment team currently consists of eleven professionals, making it the leading player in the Norwegian lower mid-market. Longship closed its second fund in November 2020 with commitments of NOK 1.7 billion.
About The Cloud People
The Cloud People helps organizations to transform their business to the cloud and gain and utilize the competitive advantages from the best cloud platform solutions on the market today; ServiceNow and Google Cloud Platform. With its Smart Resourcing concept, customers have access to top quality resources at a reasonable price in a simplified and transparent way. The company has delivered a large number of successful projects for medium and large-scale customers in Northern Europe, with Norway and Finland as main markets. TCP was founded in Norway in 2019.