Sheffield IT services provider Azzure has been acquired by the UK arm of Nordic IT services group Advania, marking the exit of investor NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance.
Content+Cloud, which was taken over by Advania in December 2021, has bases in London, Manchester, Reading, Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Cape Town and is a UK leader in cloud, digital transformation and managed services.
Acquiring the Sheffield-based provider will allow it to build its UK presence further and develop its Microsoft Dynamics team, which is based around Europe.
Azzure, which received a £2 million investment from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance in 2018, is a leading Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provider. It was named in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 EMEA four years running, and the FT 1000 list 2019.
NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance has at least doubled its investment in the meantime, with Azzure now employing 58, more than doubling profits, and achieving its best year yet in 2021.
Craig Such, Founder and CEO of Azzure, said: “During the last four years since NPIF and Mercia have been involved, the business has undergone substantial change and has grown to the market-leading force it is today. We have built an exceptional team and we continue to add to this.
“Joining Content+Cloud and the Advania Group is the next step in Azzure’s ongoing growth journey and this will take the business to the next level.”
Will Clark, Managing Director of Regional Venture Funds at Mercia, added: “The acquisition will take the business to the next stage in its development as part of a larger IT services group, and will open up new opportunities for the team to take on bigger and more high-profile projects.”
