Bedford Consulting receives backing from Keensight Capital

16 May 2022 Consultancy.uk

Bedford Consulting has received a key investment from Keensight Capital. The private equity deal will help Bedford penetrate new markets around the world.

Founded in 2008, Bedford Consulting has been led and co-owned by two brothers: Executive Chair Neil Doyle and CEO Cathal Doyle. A leading European implementation partner of enterprise performance management (EPM) software, Bedford Consulting has offices in London, Düsseldorf, and Stockholm.

Employing approximately 80 deep-domain technical experts, the consultancy supports more than 250 clients, including large and mid-market customers such as the English Football Association, Jaguar Land Rover, Penguin Random House, SoftwareOne and Transferwise.

Bedford Consulting backed by Keensight Capital

Keensight Capital is a European growth buyout investor with deep expertise in technology and healthcare. Leveraging its 20-year track record as a technology focussed investor in particular, Keensight will support Bedford’s founders in their drive for further growth, by deepening its market penetration, expanding internationally, and extending its service offering.

Cathal Doyle, the CEO of Bedford Consulting, noted, “From the moment the Keensight team contacted us, we knew that they would be a perfect fit as we share the same values and vision. Their strong track record of supporting founder-driven companies, sector expertise, and European reach will be valuable assets for us as we further strengthen our relationship with Anaplan and continue our growth.”

Bedford has exclusively focused its expertise on Anaplan EPM since 2016. Anaplan allows users to integrate and analyse data all within a unified platform, creating a single-source- of-truth from planning to decision-making. Bedford is an Anaplan Gold Partner, and has been EMEA partner of the year for seven consecutive years, benefitting from strong brand recognition and a collaborative relationship with Anaplan due to deep platform expertise, strong customer satisfaction and a high quality of service.

Yuri Mikhalev, a Partner at Keensight Capital, said of this, “We see a strong market opportunity for Anaplan partners in Europe, and Bedford Consulting is positioned like nobody else to capitalize on it. We are delighted to support the team led by Neil and Cathal in the next steps of the company’s development.”

Deal advisory

Merger and acquisition advisory firm Equiteq advised Bedford on the investment. The project represents the firm’s third private equity deal of the year, and Jerome Glynn-Smith, a Managing Director with Equiteq, said the firms were “a perfect match for a successful next chapter of growth.” He added that the transaction was “a testimony to the availability of international capital for UK PE projects” alongside the rising prominence of Anaplan “as the leading technology stack in its field.”

Speaking on Equiteq’s work on the deal, Bedford Consulting’s Executive Chair, Neil Doyle, remarked, “We had a fantastic client experience with Equiteq. It was a pleasure to work with people who got our business from the get-go. Their ability to mobilize parties globally combined with excellence in execution steered and delivered to us a valuable, internationally flavoured and differentiated private equity investment.”