Case Study: Kocho

Headquartered in Watford, Kocho is a high-growth managed services provider, providing expertise in cloud transformation and data analytics. Read the case study below to learn how Kocho is bringing the benefits of cloud computing to medium-sized businesses, with support from BGF.

A fragmented sector

When entrepreneur Des Lekerman sold an IT business that he had founded and run for almost 22 years, it freed him up to look at new opportunities. Having spent two decades helping big firms with their technology strategy, he was keen to do something similar for small and medium-sized companies.

“I came across a company called The Internet Group which I realised could be a platform to launch a new IT services company,” explains Des. “I bought the company in 2013, restructured it to serve this new market and it grew steadily from there.”

Now known as Kocho (previously TIG Data Intelligence), the Watford-based business works with specialist companies to improve their IT systems, ensuring they use technology as a strategic asset rather than background support. “We’re using technology to help clients enhance and accelerate their businesses,” says Des.

After a number of years of solid growth, Kocho started to consider the prospect of acquisition. “The technology services sector is quite fragmented,” explains Des. “There are a lot of small, privately-owned service providers across the UK and we decided that an acquisition would help us to build on our offering and bring even more expertise into the business.”

Firepower to grow

Kocho explored the private equity market to find an investor to help fund an acquisition. Having met with quite a few, Des and the team felt BGF’s offer was different to the others and best suited to their needs.

“As a privately-owned and run business, we wanted to remain in control so BGF’s minority investment offered the flexibility that we were looking for,” says Des. “But more than just cash we also wanted to bring in some firepower to support across the next phase of growth.”

BGF backed Kocho with £6 million in January 2019 which enabled the company to acquire netConsult, an IT consultancy specialising in financial services. “Its focus on the alternative investment market, hedge funds and private equity houses gave us access to an exciting sector and we really liked the business – five months after BGF’s investment we finalised the acquisition.”

The deal with BGF also brought further support for Kocho’s board, with BGF investor Mark Nunny joining as non-executive director. “He has a lot of experience and he is a great sounding board for us,” says Des. “He’s always on the end of the phone when we need him and often thinks of things that we wouldn’t have so there’s huge value in that.”

“Mark is a real advocate of our work and makes sure that other portfolio companies know the services we offer. This has meant a number of new business deals for us since January. We have even migrated BGF to Microsoft Cloud and are supporting the business with designing and delivering ongoing digital transformation enhance the growth of data.”

Looking to the future, Des is ambitious about future growth: “There’s a big market out there for what we do and the opportunities are endless – I believe every company should be its own digital disruptor.”

Value creation

BGF’s initial investment of £6 million allowed Kocho to carry out an ambitious acquisition strategy. As well as capital and expertise, BGF has supplied Kocho with valuable connections With our support, the company was able to:

• Acquire netConsult, an IT consultancy specialising in financial services
• Acquire MMRIT, a managed IT services provider serving financial services and legal clients
• Do business with companies in the BGF portfolio and beyond