Gordons advises on YFM equity partners £2.75m investment in communications platform Sipsynergy

Friday 15th July 2016

Gordons has advised specialist private equity fund manager YFM Equity Partners (YFM) on its £2.75m investment to support the growth of communications platform, Sipsynergy.

Hertfordshire-based Sipsynergy is the market-leading provider of cloud-hosted telephone solutions to SMEs, and will use the funding to accelerate the growth in its customer base through expansion of the sales and support teams.

The business has developed a solution which provides a range of communications technologies to SMEs on a cost effective basis.  Sipsynergy has been working closely with technology firm, Cisco, to create the solution which is sold on a white label basis through IT and telecoms resellers and managed service providers.

Ian Waterfield, investment director at YFM, commented:  “The shift to the cloud is accelerating, providing smaller businesses with an opportunity to access technologies and services previously only available to large corporates.  Sipsynergy has created a great cloud-hosted solution for SMEs and evolved a partnership with Cisco which provides a clear route to market.

“We are delighted to be working closely with both the existing and new members of the team to deliver the growth and realise Sipsynergy’s value aspirations.”

As part of the investment, YFM secured a number of senior appointments, including a new CEO, operations director and chairman, whose wealth of experience will complement that of the founders Barney Ritchley and John Fox.

John Fox, founder of Sipsynergy added: “The investment by YFM comes at the right time for Sipsynergy and will enable us to scale the business to meet demand from end customers and channel partners for hosted telephone solutions.

“YFM’s continued support will be key in driving our future growth as we look to develop our offering and customer base and I look forward to working with our new team to ensure our continued success.”

A team from Gordons advised YFM on the investment. The team was led by corporate partners James Fawcett and Duncan Firman and included corporate solicitor Amy Pierechod, tax solicitor Julian Moran, and commercial property solicitor Leonie Sutherland.

Duncan said: “YFM’s investment in Sipsynergy will enable both organisations to encourage growth and capitalise on the boom in cloud-based technology. As more and more companies utilise the cloud, access to platforms such as these will become increasingly valuable to SMEs, making this a sound and sensible investment on the part of YFM.”