YFM makes £8m follow-on investment in Oracle & multi-cloud services specialist DSP-Explorer to fund further growth

One of the UK’s largest independent Oracle partners, London-headquartered DSP-Explorer, a database and cloud managed services provider, has received an additional £8m of investment from YFM Equity Partners (YFM). The investment, made by the YFM-managed YFM Equity Partners Buyout II LP fund, will enable the business to continue its organic and acquisitive growth plans.

With offices in London, Nottingham, Basingstoke and Leeds, DSP-Explorer was founded in 1999 and has grown turnover to £23m, employing nearly 100 people nationally. With an established reputation as a trusted technology partner and Oracle expert, DSP-Explorer now boasts multi-cloud cloud capabilities as a Microsoft Gold Partner and Google Cloud Partner.

YFM’s investment in DSP-Explorer will give the business further firepower to acquire complementary businesses, having successfully acquired Explorer UK in July 2020, a leading Oracle database consultancy and development partner.

Since YFM backed the management buyout of the business in 2018, led by Simon Goodenough, revenues and profits have both grown by over 300%, with a growing recurring revenue base and strong demand from enterprise customers.

Simon Goodenough, CEO of DSP-Explorer, said: “We have seen consistently strong growth since YFM’s initial investment, with their funding enabling us to take advantage of market opportunities as well as us benefitting from the team’s strategic insight. Together, we have developed an ambitious plan to scale the business, both in the UK and abroad, through both organic and acquisitive growth, as the sector continues to expand post-pandemic.

“This latest support is a further demonstration of YFM’s belief in our business and our potential – we are looking forward to embarking on the next phase of our growth plan, delivering on our Oracle Anywhere and Any Database, Any Cloud initiatives, with a supportive partner at our side.”

Roshan Puri, investment director at YFM, comments: “DSP is a leader in its field and its acquisition of Explorer last year marked another key milestone with the creation of a combined group with the potential to dominate the UK enterprise database managed services sector.

“With its leading reputation and high quality team, DSP-Explorer will provide an attractive partner for complementary acquisitions and ambitious teams seeking to join a high growth multi-cloud managed services business. We are proud to be continuing our work alongside the team as they pursue their vision for the business.”

This latest investment in DSP is the second from YFM’s Buyout Fund II in recent weeks, following its backing of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software specialist Cooper Software in November.

The YFM investment team comprised Roshan Puri, Ben Pitt and Ian Waterfield. Corporate finance advice was provided by BDO; Financial due diligence by Azets; legal advice by Gateley and Browne Jacobson; organisational review by Stratton HR; and tax advice by Claritas.