Investor buys minority stake in technology consultancy Altius
London-based technology consultancy Altius has sold a minority stake in its business to private equity firm MML Capital Partners, in a move that is designed to support the continued growth of the firm, both in the UK and internationally.
Founded in 1993, Altius is an IT consulting firm and solutions provider specialised in technology advisory, technical delivery and project management, and managed services. Altius works across a range of IT domains, including business intelligence, data science, artificial intelligence & machine learning, performance management, data analytics & visualisation, and digital transformation. The firm’s services portfolio builds on longstanding partnerships with among others Oracle, OneStream, Microsoft and Tableau.
From offices in the UK (London; headquarters and Surrey), the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and India (Pune), Altius’ 250 professionals work for clients such as AIG, British Petroleum, Costa Coffee, Pizza Express, Rolls Royce, Selfridges and VolkerWessels.
According to Luke Jones, a partner at private equity group MML Capital, “the team at Altius have built a fantastic business – they do great work in helping companies realise the opportunity from advanced uses of data.” He stated that MML Capital foresees “very exciting growth opportunities” for the technology consultancy, adding “we are delighted to be working with them through the next phase of their journey.”
The investment for Altius comes at a time when data science expenditures are booming. According to a forecast by analyst giant IDC, global spending on digital transformation grew 18% last year to US $1.18 trillion (almost equal to the GDP of Australia), with data science and data analytics one of the fastest growing segments.
Richard Sanders, a partner at M&A consultancy Alantra, confirmed the positive outlook for the segment in the UK. “Over two thirds of executives expect to increase their data consultancy spend over the next year and as such, it’s a sector in which we forecast considerable growth, with continued interest from both financial investors and strategic acquirers.”
Altius specialises in helping companies harness their data enabling them to drive improved business performance, and as such, is seeking to leverage the added financial muscle to expand its footprint in the market. Details of the growth strategy have however not been disclosed.
Commenting on why the company picked MML Capital Partners, in a deal advised on by Alantra, Altius CEO Simon Goldsmith said: “We were impressed with MML’s flexibility and collaborative approach from day one. We feel they are the right partner to complement the existing Altius team and look forward to working with them to continue our UK and international growth.”
The deal marks the in a series of private equity investments in the technology consultancy sector. Earlier this month, Livingbridge invested in digital consultancy Vendigital while in September last year MThree Consulting received backing from mid-market private equity firm ECI Partners.
According to Mark Ligertwood, a partner at private equity firm Dunedin, private equity can accelerate the growth of smaller consultancies.
