PSA provider Kimble secures 'significant' growth investment
Kimble is a UK-founded professional services automation provider, offering an IT system that helps professional services firms run their operations, from sales to project management and finance. As the firm looks to expand its operations, Kimble has closed a significant growth investment from Accel-KKR, a leading technology-focused investment firm.
Consulting organisations – an industry that is built on people and project-driven work – however, face specific challenges. They rely more heavily on understanding the profitability of individual projects, rather than the overall department or company performance. As a result, the demand for professional services automation (PSA) solutions in the consulting sector – as well as the broader professional services industry, including law firms, accounting companies, architects, engineers and others – has boomed in recent years.
The PSA market is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow at a rapid clip driven by services organisations turning to PSA tools to improve productivity, operational efficiency, financial margins and billable utilization. Enterprises have been using spreadsheets and legacy solutions for various tasks such as resource and time management, but as businesses grow and become more complex, the need for automation and maintaining business quality, throughput and effectiveness will grow as well. Kimble is one company which formed to tap into this demand.
Commenting on the firm’s expansion, Sean Hoban, co-founder of Kimble said, “My co-founders and I… ran complex services organisations in our previous roles, and then founded Kimble in 2010 precisely to have a services-first lens. Fast forward a decade, demand for solutions that address critical challenges around scoping, resourcing and delivering projects for clients is higher than it’s ever been, and we see tremendous opportunities to further innovate and expand what’s possible in our category as companies continue to push for increased predictability in resource utilisation, profitability, and business scalability.”
The firm boasts a roster of global clients such as Infor and Finastra, and strong positioning in the PSA market to deliver transformative solutions to clients. In this context, Kimble realised the time was right to seek out investment to help take the project to the next level.
As a result, the firm has secured a significant growth investment from technology-focused investment firm Accel-KKR. Following Accel-KKR’s initial investment in Kimble in early 2018, the move sees the investor become a majority interest holder in the company, and will fuel continued innovation of the company’s PSA platform, while accelerating go-to-market initiatives that will enhance Kimble’s position in the lucrative North America modern services market.
“We plan to leverage Accel-KKR’s deep software expertise and network to help Kimble accelerate growth globally,” said Maurice Hernandez, Managing Director of Accel-KKR and board member of Kimble. “Given our ongoing relationship with the Kimble team, we are already aligned on strategies including continued focus on North American growth, supporting the team in introducing new innovations to this category and pursuing strategic M&A opportunities. We are excited to invest further capital and resources in Kimble.”
Hoban also outline the potential of the investment to boost Kimble’s growth internationally. With this investment, he stated that the business would continue “to grow its position as a leader at the vanguard of the project management market,” while doubling down on furnishing clients with the necessary tools to deliver value to their customers.
Hoban concluded, “This follow-on investment from Accel-KKR is validation that Kimble is a category leader and innovator... Over the three years of partnering with Accel-KKR, our teams have formed a strong relationship based on a shared vision for Kimble, resulting in some of our best operating years and robust expansion in North America. Kimble has seen tremendous growth over the past few years and is in a great place.”
