UK IT Channel News | IT Channel Oxygen
  • News
  • Topics
    • Vendor
    • Distributor
    • Partner
    • Indepth
    • Sustainability
    • M&A
    • People Moves
    • AI
    • Tech trends
  • Sustainability
  • About Us
  • Partner with us
Members
Must-Know Distributors
Oxygen 250
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Topics
    • Vendor
    • Distributor
    • Partner
    • Indepth
    • Sustainability
    • M&A
    • People Moves
    • AI
    • Tech trends
  • Sustainability
  • About Us
  • Partner with us
No Result
View All Result
UK IT Channel News | IT Channel Oxygen
No Result
View All Result
Home M&A

‘Our competitors were rooting for us’: Focus Group Founder on reaching $1bn unicorn status

Hg beats off stiff competition from 6 other PE houses to land comms provider

Doug Woodburn by Doug Woodburn
15 April 2024
in M&A
‘Our competitors were rooting for us’: Focus Group Founder on reaching $1bn unicorn status
Share on LinkedinShare on Twitter

Focus Group’s competitors were “rooting” for it to succeed in a “leaky” sale process that saw it bag unicorn status, Co-Founder Ralph Gilbert has told IT Channel Oxygen.

The business comms and IT provider this morning announced it has swapped private equity backers, with Hg replacing incumbent Bowmark Capital.

The move values Focus at just shy of £800m, thrusting it into a select group of fewer than 50 UK companies with ‘unicorn’ status (private companies valued at $1bn or more).

Gilbert said the feat was achieved just four days behind a goal management set last year.

“About a year ago, the management team all went away for the weekend to strategise, and all that jazz,” he told IT Channel Oxygen.

“I said, ‘right, we want to be a unicorn’, and that’s kind of what we’ve been aiming for ever since. The amount we got is exactly a unicorn.

“We’ve always been a target-driven business. When we did our first process with Bowmark, we had certain goals we wanted to hit by a certain time. And we beat them all.

“[Becoming a unicorn] was the goal we set ourselves on that day – and we were four days behind schedule from when we set it.”

Seven PE firms in the running

Providing comms, connectivity and IT services to around 30,000 SMEs, Shoreham-by-Sea-based Focus ranked 25th in the recent Oxygen 250.

Six other private equity firms were in the running, Gilbert revealed.

Hg, which has made more than a dozen investments in the SME tech services space, showed a “deep understanding of how to maximise and accelerate growth using data and AI,” according to the press release.

Ralph Gilbert, Focus Group
Ralph Gilbert

“We were lucky enough to have a lot of options, especially in an industry where nothing has really sold for the last couple of years,” Gilbert said.

“Everyone knew we were going through a process – it’s the most leaky process I’ve ever come across. But what was interesting is all our peers came together to support us. It’s quite unheard of when all your competitors are rooting for you. But everyone wanted us to get away with a good result.”

The ESG component of the sale process was “quite large”, Gilbert commented, echoing claims that sustainability is beginning to exert a bearing on how firms in the IT sector are valued.

“We were asked a lot of questions [about ESG],” he said. “If we hadn’t had that in place it would probably have raised a few questions.”

Gilbert concluded: “It’s been an exciting two months, but everyone’s now got their head back in the game and is looking forward to the next chapter of continuing organic growth and M&A with a much larger war chest than we had before.”

Steve Brazier, Canalys
Steve Brazier

In comments to IT Channel Oxygen, Informa Fellow Steve Brazier, said:

“Reaching ‘unicorn’ status makes for a great story but is rather meaningless unless that value is unlocked. The story here is that one PE firm has managed to exit and has found another fund to replace it.  In the current high-interest environment it has not been easy for PE firms to exit at acceptable valuations. So this transaction shows it is still possible for channel partners to find new owners.” 

Doug Woodburn
Website |  + postsBio

Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen

  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    ‘I’m going back to my roots’ – Neil Murphy resurfaces at youthful VAR
  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    UK can ‘lead the world’ on AI adoption, CEO of ambitious Microsoft AI partner claims
  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    New Charterhouse CEO: ‘We’re not really missing anything’
  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    ‘Very possible’ – Climb CEO drops M&A hint following Microsoft distribution rule change
Tags: featuredFocus Groupmember
Previous Post

‘A target I can contribute to’ – Computacenter CEO on 1:1 device recovery goal

Next Post

Westcoast acquires £100m rival Spire

Related Posts

Neil Murphy
People Moves

‘I’m going back to my roots’ – Neil Murphy resurfaces at youthful VAR

13 August 2025
Martyn Bullerwell, Telefonica Tech
People Moves

4 takeaways as Telefónica Tech taps new UK&I top dog

12 August 2025
James McGourlay, OpenText
People Moves

5 things to know as OpenText ousts CEO

12 August 2025
Aspire CFO and CEO Tom Howard and Chris Fraser
Business

Aspire sets new £100m revenue target

12 August 2025
Top 10 biggest channel partner stories of 2025 so far…
Partner

Top 10 biggest channel partner stories of 2025 so far…

11 August 2025
Martin Neale, ICS.AI
AI

UK can ‘lead the world’ on AI adoption, CEO of ambitious Microsoft AI partner claims

8 August 2025
Bechtle
Business

Bechtle high fives UK amid Q2 ‘recovery’

8 August 2025
James Rigby, Sir Peter Rigby and Steve Rigby
M&A

‘Always our intention’ – SCC parent maps flight path out of airports business

7 August 2025
Next Post
Westcoast Theale HQ

Westcoast acquires £100m rival Spire

Follow Us

IT Channel Oxygen keeps you informed on the UK IT channel and its sustainable transformation. Learn more

  • About
  • Our Team
  • Partner with us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • News
  • Cookie Policy (UK)

© 2025 IT Channel Oxygen

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
No Result
View All Result
  • Oxygen 250
  • Must-Know Distributors
  • Member area
  • KOcycle Zone
  • Big Interview
  • News
  • Indepth
  • About
  • Partner with us

© 2025 IT Channel Oxygen