Academia owner Strive Capital has snapped up Jigsaw24 in a deal that creates a £350m-revenue VAR-MSP powerhouse.
In arguably the largest UK channel deal of 2026, Strive has acquired 100% of the Nottingham-based Apple reseller from Alcuin Capital and its existing shareholders.
Strive had been talking to Alcuin “on and off” for a “couple of years”, its founder Andrew Harman revealed.
“Something nearly happened a couple of years ago that didn’t, and then we reinvented it again – and we both felt we could make it work this time,” Harman told IT Channel Oxygen.
“If we hadn’t done that, it would have left us in limbo. [Academia] is a £150m [revenue], profitable reseller and managed service provider. There’s room for that, but we felt we had to scale up to compete in the big league.
“Without sounding flash, that’s where we want to be.
“All of a sudden, we’re competing with the best – the Softcats the Computacenters, the CDWs.
“We need to keep them separate”
Strive will run Academia and Jigsaw24 separately, at least to begin with, Harman said.
“I think in 12 months you’ll see a different shape of the business, but for now – just the contractual obligations – we need to keep them separate,” he said.
B2B-focused Jigsaw24 and public sector-leaning Academia ranked 15th and 32nd in Oxygen 250 2026, respectively, with the latter breaking £150m revenue in its latest year. Academia counts not only Apple but also Adobe, Microsoft, Lenovo and HP among its key vendor partnerships.
The opportunity lies in cross-selling the managed services Academia has built on the back of its 2024 Smartdesc acquisition into Jigsaw24’s customer base, Harman indicated.
“It’s about our ability to convert [their customers] into a fully managed service and recurring revenue, which I think they haven’t been able to do because they’ve been fairly focused on Apple,” he said.
“Apple is still important to us, but customers don’t live and die by Apple – there are other elements to their IT strategy.
“We’re growing organically at 15-20% a year, and we need to continue that momentum going forward with their client base – we can see a big opportunity.”
“We paid a lot of money for this business”
Although the deal – which was only finalised last night – will see both Alcuin and Jigsaw24 founders Roger Whittle and John Hughes exit as shareholders, Jigsaw24 CEO David Dudman and Rob Hicking will stay on.
Strive will take “at least 12 months” to figure out a gameplan on how to integrate the two businesses, Academia MD and Strive co-owner Mark McCormack acknowledged.
“We’re not buying a distressed business here. We’re buying a strong brand with equity, good people and good customers. There’s no pressure or rush to do that,” he said.
“We paid a lot of money for this business, so it’s certainly not distressed,” Harman emphasised.
Harman had been hunting for a “scale” acquisition to bolster Strive’s portfolio for several years, having first invested in Academia in 2020.
Acquiring Apple’s largest UK B2B partner is a “big statement” about his firm’s ambitions, he claimed
“I like what [Softcat CEO] Graham Charlton said the other day, about there being enough room for everyone. That’s good. There’s opportunity out there for everyone – we can all grow together,” Harman concluded.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
