Portfolio examples

See a sample of our work

Listed below are some summary details of our present portfolio of independent sponsor positions. We have in the pipeline a steady train of new groups planning to be built and these will be shared over the course of the coming months.

See the deal

Client: Mark Allen & Phil Smith
Sector: IT Managed Services

Legacy

Mark & Phil previously spent 30 years’ combined service in IT & Telco services, culminating in CFO and COO roles in GCI, a founder-led Telco which they had helped to scale and transform into a full IT MSP with the support of minority equity investor, BGF. Over 10 years the business conducted 23 acquisitions and was ultimately sold in 2018 for £197m to secondary PE, Mayfair.
Independence were approached direct by the mgmt team, hoping to utilise their experience of building and scaling through M&A at GCI to create a similar platform of smaller scale which they could have higher share of the upside and increased autonomy rather than taking that same plan to a traditional private equity peer.

Process

Full market map of possible acquisition targets
Design and implementation of new Holdco & fundraise with seed capital
Acquisition of IT Farm – £1.5m Revprivate cloud platform
Acquisition of Nexxbridge – £2.0m Revteleswitch handler and carrier grade CCAS
Acquisition of CSS Group – £5.0m Revmanaged IT services, hardware & connectivity
Acquisition of Everything Tech – £7.0m RevMicrosoft Modern Work practice
Refinance & fundraise to recapitalise and reduce debt service – senior now Natwest
Recruit expanded senior leadership team in readiness for scale
Acquisition of Your Office Anywhere – £2.0m Revmicro-cloud services provider
Acquisition of Codus – £1m Revlegal services focused MSP
Acquisition of Sire & Gib – £5m Revnetwork MSP & IAAS to regulated markets
Acquisition of Nexstor – £12m Revhybrid cloud solutions value-added reseller

Team

Mark Allen
Founder
Phil Smith
Founder
Adrian Thirkhill
NED
ex-CEO of GCI and also NED of Celerity on behalf of BGF
Wayne Martin
NED
ex-Founder of GCI
Danny Mills
CCO
ex Sales Director of GCI
Rachael Allen
COO
ex Ops Director GCI and COO of Gradwell Comms (PE Exit)
Craig McLauchlan
CFO
ex Finance Director GCI

Trading

2021–2026

of equity: £15m
of senior debt: £15m

Revenue and EBITDA, 2021 and 2026
	2021	2026
Revenue	£3.0m	£42m
EBITDA	£0.6m	£8m
FTE	15	150

Awards

Won
Kaseya Fastest Growing MSP
2025
Nominated
CRN Channel Awards MSP of the Year
2025
Nominated
CloudTango UK Top 50 MSP
2025

Quote

“With Independence’s support we have been able to deliver without compromise our design for what an IT MSP ready for the future can look like. Some five years post-commencement it has been a journey with highs and lows but the steadfast support of Independence has given us the fortitude to navigate all challenges that invariably come with building an operation of this scale and complexity, I would thoroughly recommend them to anyone looking to embark on a similar venture”

Mark AllenDirector

The Independence View

Aside from Mark & Phil’s very obvious sector credentials, we were convicted on the sector itself because of the expected future changes that would force greater adoption of and reliance on technology. Pleasingly, that has played out as expected – increasing requirements first for modern workplace practices post-Covid, then hardening resilience to the growing threats of cyber and now taking a proactive approach to the adoption of AI and Automation. I am both proud of the journey to date and what we have built together, as much as I am the scope for future development where the opportunity remains unbound.

Independence Capital

Client: Alex Heslip & Chris Earle
Sector: IT Managed Services

Legacy

Alex & Chris previously spent 10 years working together at Verastar, a traditional comms business which had diversified into an array of utility & financial services and whose growth was underpinned by M&A to acquire and scale capability which was then upsold through the base. Their target market was the lower end of SME and at one point they sold into 1 in 3 UK SMEs through a wide estate of singular brands.
The business was taken through a secondary PE exit by Vitruvian Partners and during leadership’s time had grown from £100m to £440m Enterprise Value.
Independence were approached direct by the mgmt team, hoping to utilise their experience to create a similar but IT-first platform where they could have higher share of the upside and increased autonomy rather than taking that same plan to a traditional private equity peer.

Process

Full market map of possible acquisition targets
Design and implementation of new Holdco & fundraise with seed capital
Acquisition of RISC IT Solutions – £5m RevCloud services VAR
Acquisition of Novem – £3m RevMicrosoft MSP
Refinance & fundraise to recapitalise – TDC providing co-invest & senior debt
Recruit expanded senior leadership team in readiness for scale
Acquisition of Infrasys – £2.5m RevAutomotive-first MSP
Acquisition of Reach IT – £1.5m RevAutomotive-first MSP
Acquisition of Intallect – £2.5m RevMSP

Team

Alex Heslip
CEO
Chris Earle
Chair
Steve Smith
NED
ex CFO of Daisy Plc
Jeremy Keane
NED
ex MD of RISC IT
Charlotte Williams
CFO
ex FD of Air IT (Horizon sponsored)
Rhys Watson
COO
recruited through acquisition
Miles Redding
CCO
ex Sales Director Xperience (Bowmark sponsored)
Bruce Laing
CIO
recruited through acquisition

Trading

2023–2026

of equity: £6m
of senior debt: £6m

Revenue and EBITDA, 2023 and 2026
	2023	2026
Revenue	£5m	£19m
EBITDA	£0.5m	£3m
FTE	20	75

Quote

“Whilst we are only mid-cycle, Independence have delivered absolutely everything they said they would and been a pleasure to work with through the process. I engaged them originally off a recommendation and felt at the time, more than anyone else I spoke to in Corporate Finance and Private Equity, that they were very aligned with me on risk & reward – the fact they were already experts in this path and market made it a very natural choice”

Alex HeslipDirector

The Independence View

Alex and Chris are a perfect fit for our model and we have really enjoyed working with them. Building a team of talents – in combination from protecting continuity in our acquisitions and leveraging emerging stars within other PE platforms in our sector has been very rewarding and we can already see the green shoots of what will be a great business by the time we get into 2028. It’s a really exciting market to be in, with constant change and perpetually high customer requirements and problems to solve. Having multiple assets in the same sector (so long as customer profiles don’t overlap) I think has proven hugely beneficial in both directions and is likely something we will look to repeat as we are heavily convicted on the sector generally.

Independence Capital

Client: Phil McClennon & Harrison Burkitt
Sector: High Voltage Power Distribution

Legacy

Phil McClennon has been pivotal in building industrial plants & car factories around the world for global brands such as Ford & ThyssenKrupp before leading an Industrial FM on behalf of Triton. An electrical engineer by trade, Phil has amassed unrivalled engineering services experience from the largest names in the market.
Harrison Burkitt (recruited by Independence and matched to Phil’s strategy) was FD for Learnd a European listed Building Energy Management Consolidator which grew quickly over a four year horizon to c£50m revenue.
Independence were engaged direct by management who had capital to put to work and a desire to create a digital first engineering services company but were unsure where best to deploy and what to build and wanted a team & sponsor to support that thesis, without giving all that value back to a traditional private equity.

Process

Full map of industrials – prioritising those markets with growth / reliance / value-add
Design of the High Voltage to Low Voltage power solutions map, where we would combine businesses across the value chain from source-to-use (comm & industrial) and underpinning that proposition with digitally native deployment end-to-end
Full market map of possible acquisition targets
Design and implementation of new Holdco & fundraise with seed & mezz capital
Acquisition of Levertech HV – £3.5m RevNERS accredited ICP serving IDNOs
Acquisition of PK Engineering – £7m RevM&E contractor serving Industrials
Acquisition of Cronshaw Electrical – £8m RevLV contractor serving Industrials
Refinance to increase debt capacity & repay mezz – Growth Lending now Senior
Recruit expanded senior leadership team in readiness for scale

Team

Phil McClennon
CEO
Harrison Burkitt
CFO
Spencer Thompson
Chair
ex CEO of Eclipse Power (Octopus backed IDNO)
Mark Wilson
COO
ex Divisional MD NG Bailey (UK largest private infra co)

Trading

2023–2026

of equity: £2m
of senior debt: £6m

Revenue and EBITDA, 2023 and 2026
	2023	2026
Revenue	£3.5m	£24m
EBITDA	£0.5m	£3m
FTE	17	120

Quote

“Operating outside of the protection of a larger corporate entity comes with some trepidation but so far Independence have been incredibly supportive and helpful preempting & helping navigate the growing pains inherent with what we are trying to build. The market opportunity is enormous but the build of a technical labour business on such critical infrastructure can’t be rushed and I think we are right to be measured and focussing on tooling up on talent and embedding singular system sets across the business before we push to scale”

Phil McClennonDirector

The Independence View

We were convicted in the sector generally because of the very obvious lack of investment in an already struggling grid infrastructure, which when combined with expected unprecedented levels of demand in the years ahead (EVs, Renewables, Decarbonisation, Automation etc), could only ever yield a great opportunity to build a services / solutions business around. Phil and Harrison have a clear plan for what they want to build and the market dynamics certainly favour consolidation albeit with inherent challenges for all participants regarding the availability of quality labour, which appears perpetually constrained but also where Hardtech have a solution for building their talent roadmap potentially unlike any other peer in the market.

Independence Capital

See a sample of our work

Legacy

Process

Team

Trading

Awards

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The Independence View

Legacy

Process

Team

Trading

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The Independence View

Legacy

Process

Team

Trading

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The Independence View

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