Kerv continues expansion with cloudThing

Managed services player Kerv has struck its fifth deal in the space of a year after picking up cloudThing, as it looks to bolster its Microsoft expertise and strengthen its digital transformation proposition.

The firm, which emerged last July with the backing of private equity player LDC through the £30m merger of three cloud businesses – DoubleEdge, Foehn and Metaphor IT – has been on a mission to expand the business.

As well as being a digital transformation player, its latest target, cloudThing, is also a Microsoft gold partner and a specialist in Dynamics & Power Platform as well as handling bespoke software requests.

Alastair Mills, executive chairman at Kerv, said that the deal – the terms of which were not disclosed – was important for the company.

“This acquisition is a significant step for Kerv and a major investment in the rapidly growing digital transformation market,” he said. “We are combining our existing cloud managed services and infrastructure transformation capability with cloudThing’s digital transformation proposition thanks to their combination of DevOps, data science and software engineering services.

“Every aspect of cloudThing – its strong organic growth model, culture, people, leadership and approach to customers – makes it an ideal fit for the Kerv group.”

The plan is for cloudThing to continue operating in its current guise, with the two founders staying with the business. Current COO Stuart Harper will become CEO of cloudThing and joins the Kerv management team along with chief customer officer Mike Wrout.

Harper said the combined businesses would add more depth to the services that could be delivered. “Kerv’s commitment to organic growth, underpinned by a focus on customer experience and employee engagement, is central to our own culture and our belief in the mission of the group as a whole,” he added.

Despite Kerv making acquisitions, its ambition is to drive organic growth and not simply rely on boosting revenues and customer numbers through purchases.

“Over the years, we have seen many companies in our space grow rapidly through acquisition, only to be followed by aggressive centralisation and cost-cutting and eventually, any organic growth evaporates. Our strategy is different,” said Mike Ing, managing director at Kerv.

“We are firmly focused on delivering sector-leading organic growth by embracing the character of each complementary business within the group, ensuring we continue to focus on what has made them a success while leveraging our respective strengths. The combination with cloudThing is a great example of our approach.”