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SharpCloud closes £4.5m Series A round from YFM

16 October 2019

SharpCloud closes £4.5m Series A round from YFM

Funds advised by YFM Equity Partners (“YFM”), the specialist private equity fund manager, have backed a £4.5m investment into SharpCloud Software Limited (“SharpCloud”) to support the continued growth and roll out of its enterprise SaaS product. YFM’s investment comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc, alongside YFM Equity Partners Growth II LP.

SharpCloud was founded in 2012 by Sarim Khan and Rusty Johnson, following the successful sale of their previous software business to Oracle Primavera. Having spent some time within the Business Intelligence (‘BI’) and data analytics space, they noted a lack of powerful top-down software tools that could allow large organisations to visualise complex data across siloed lines-of-business and built SharpCloud to solve this.

Since the launch of its enterprise product 2 years ago, SharpCloud has seen rapid growth, with organisations ranging from Rolls Royce to the US Federal Government using the product to unlock key insights and support executive decision making.

YFM’s investment will be used to support the continued growth of the business as it scales to meet the market opportunity, with SharpCloud expanding its team in the UK and the US. These newly created roles will enable the business to continue to further develop its market-leading technology and to grow its international client base.

Adam Hart and Jamie Roberts led the investment for YFM.  Adam Hart commented: “SharpCloud are solving a key business problem that large organisations have contended with for many years – ‘how best to use the large quantities of data to inform complex decision making and to shape business strategy?’, removing the need to inform decisions using static slide deck presentations built upon hotchpotch datasets.

We’ve been hugely impressed with Sarim & Rusty’s ambition and vision, as well as the culture the business has created in a short space of time. We are very excited about what the future holds and will work closely with the SharpCloud team to scale the business into an international success story.”

Sarim Khan, co-founder and CEO of SharpCloud, added:

“We’re really excited to have found and partnered with an investor, in YFM, that understands and shares our vision. This round of funding comes at a time where we have begun to experience rapid growth, with the SharpCloud product continually garnering rave reviews and subsequent viral effects taking hold. We’re now able to capitalise on the huge opportunity that lies ahead.

We have built a great relationship with Adam and Jamie during the process and have enjoyed their straight-forward and pragmatic approach. We’re delighted to have YFM join the team.”

Financial Due Diligence was provided by Nathan Willis and Brad McAvoy of James Cowper Kreston, tax structuring advice by Phil Snell and Emma Elliott of James Cowper Kreston, legal advice by Chris Reed and Niall McCooey of Gateley Plc, Commercial Due Diligence by Roger Penney and Geoff Rampton of RPL Ltd, Organisational Review by Anna Cornwallis of Stratton HR and Technical Due Diligence by Paul McAdam of Source Code Control.

Daniel Jonas of WK Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor to SharpCloud with Tim Hewens and William Nicolson of Osborne Clarke LLP providing legal advice.

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