Unified Comms, Contact Centre and Cyber Solutions provider, Babble, has acquired 8020, in a deal that provides scale to Babble while delivering a Scottish presence for the tech business as it continues its expansion.
Founded in Dumfries, Scotland in 2005, 8020 provides mobile, connectivity and IT services to over 750 customers across Scotland and the North of England, including multinational Fortune 500 and Insider Top 300 companies.
The acquisition of 8020 continues Babble’s outstanding growth over the last 24 months, as it has deployed a highly successful buy and build strategy complemented by robust organic growth. With more deals in the pipeline for 2021, Babble now has over 25,000 UCaaS, 34,000 mobile and 4,000 CCaaS users, as well as an expanding Cyber, IT and MSP customer base.
Babble’s growth over the last few years is one of the big success stories in its industry. This is demonstrated by the private equity investment of Graphite Capital in November 2020 – which was supported by reinvestment from LDC and management – to accelerate the buy and build strategy for the business. Annual revenue has rapidly grown to £40m – over 90% of which is recurring.
Matthew Parker, Chief Executive of Babble, said:
“As a proud Scotsman I’m thrilled to take our business into this new region. This deal supports our drive to acquire high quality revenue tech businesses that will add significant value to Babble as we continue our ride to becoming the UK’s leading cloud technology business.
“Since 2005, 8020 has delivered brilliant mobile, connectivity and IT solutions to numerous large-scale businesses across the region and has built a fantastically loyal customer base, which is something we truly value. We look forward to keeping these customers front and centre of everything we do, whilst helping their business adapt and evolve with next generation technology solutions including UCaaS, CCaaS and Cyber.”
Babble offers three core solutions to businesses: Babble Comms drives efficiencies through cost saving and productivity improvements; Babble Contact – which has been named as Five9’s EMEA Partner of Year for two consecutive years – increases customer engagement by enabling high quality, positive, productive and ultimately more profitable conversations with customers; and Babble Cyber embeds business resilience by delivering the best cloud-based tools and security available, allowing teams to work the way they want to work.
Babble has offices across the UK – with more than 200 staff located nationwide. The business supports more than 4,500 organisations across a broad range of sectors – including financial, health and education, travel and accommodation, and public services – by sourcing, deploying and supporting locally the very best cloud solutions to deliver increased efficiency, customer engagement and profitability, whilst protecting customers’ businesses.
Andrew Edgar, Managing Director of 8020, said:
“8020 has been on a tremendous journey over the last 17 years and I firmly believe that with the technology and capabilities that Babble provide, it is the perfect fit to enable our customers and staff to grow and flourish in the years ahead. This is a win-win for all concerned.”
