Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”) as joint manager of the Capital for Enterprise Fund (“CfE Fund”) has today announced its £2 million investment in Documetric, a leading provider of business to business services as a technology led Business Process Outsourcer (“BPO”).
The £75 million CfE Fund is a Government backed initiative launched earlier this year to help small and medium size enterprises (“SMEs”) in the UK gain access to the financial support required to bridge the funding gap caused by the credit crisis. In April 2009, it was announced that £60 million from the CfE Fund would be allocated to two separate £30 million funds, one of which is managed by Maven. A further £15 million is being managed as a co-investment fund by Capital for Enterprise Fund Managers.
The investment in Documetric made by the CfE Fund will support Documetric’s growth and development plans as an innovative technology led business process outsourcer delivering payment processing, transactional and managed services in secure data management applications, finance and administration.
Documetric has grown rapidly since it commenced trading in February 2007, with services driven by the needs of its customers to reduce costs and improve their service quality in their own business activities.
Richard Arden, Finance Director at Documetric, said, "This investment will facilitate further organic growth by Documetric and is an attractive alternative to private equity; the efficient delivery of our outsourcing services is key to generating significant savings to our clients and we have a significant pipeline that has partly been driven by clients looking to rapidly cut costs in their operations."
Andrew Craig, Partner at Maven, said, “Documetric is a high quality BPO with an impressive blue chip client base, the senior management team, led by Rami Cassis, have exciting plans for the business and Maven is delighted to be able to provide this investment from the CfE Fund to help the team achieve their strategic vision. This again demonstrates the value of the CfE fund in supporting ambitious UK businesses like Documetric.”
Key professionals involved in this transaction included:
Documetric is a technology led Business Process Outsource provider delivering transactional and managed services in the areas of finance, back office processes and secure data management. It was formed in February 2007 by the Chief Executive, Rami Cassis, and brings together transactional processing and payment processing businesses. It has increased rapidly from £2m to £11m annual turnover and employs 260 staff.
Documetric aims to provide an outstanding level of service and to work consistently close to our customers.
In support of this, it has deployed innovative technology to underpin PCI and ISO accreditions - ISO 9001 (quality) & ISO 27001 (information security) processes. This foundation supports every client service delivered.
The strength in operations and technology allows Documetric to process complex transactions delivered across multiple media.
Key Facts:
About the Capital for Enterprise Fund
The Capital for Enterprise Fund (“the Fund”) comprises £75 million of equity, made up of £50m of Government funds and an additional £25 million from retail banks Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and RBS. The purpose of the fund is to provide equity and quasi equity of between £200,000 and £2 million to small- and medium-sized British companies with viable business models and growth potential in need of long term capital.
£60 million of the Fund is managed by professional experienced fund managers, Octopus Investments and Maven Capital Partners UK (formerly Aberdeen Asset Managers). Each company oversees the management of a £30 million fund. The remaining £15 million will be invested directly by, Capital for Enterprise Fund Managers, on a co-investment basis.
About Capital for Enterprise Limited (www.capitalforenterprise.gov.uk)
Capital for Enterprise Fund Managers Limited (‘CfEFML’) is a subsidiary of Capital for Enterprise Limited (‘CfEL’), an asset management business that designs, implements and manages finance measures to support Small and Medium Size Enterprises (‘SMEs’) across the UK. CfEL is the largest single investor in UK Early Stage Venture Capital funds and manages guarantee programmes to support bank lending. With current investment commitments of over £365 million in 37 Venture Capital funds, together with its responsibility for the Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme and the £1.3 billion Enterprise Finance Guarantee, CfEL has over £2.0 billion in commitments, assets and liabilities under management.