The IT, communications and cloud platform business will retain the name Digital Wholesale Solutions (DWS), which Daisy has used for its wholesale business since 2019. The investment means that DWS is valued at £1 billion.
DWS’s CEO Terry O’Brien (pictured) said: “The announcement today is brilliant news for DWS, brilliant news for our vendors and most importantly brilliant news for our partners. From the get-go, it was clear that Inflexion shared our excitement about the UK channel community and the huge potential for growth as SMEs [small and medium enterprises] increase their investment in digital technology.”
DWS’s services are targeted at resellers serving SMEs in the 10-250 employee range. It describes itself as a channel-only software platform business providing IT, communications and cloud products and services on a wholesale basis to over 6,000 UK partners, from vendors including Vodafone, O2, BT/EE, Microsoft and Virgin Media Business. In late 2019 it agreed to sell direct fibre products from CityFibre.
Most of the existing shareholders will retain separate shareholdings in DWS, the companies said. O’Brien, former CEO of Daisy Wholesale, will remain in post, leading the business with the support of his existing management team. He said: “I’m delighted that Inflexion is joining our team, where we are obsessed with building a great channel-only business, delivering great products and a great experience for partners through a great platform.”
At the same time Daisy founder Matt Riley will remain as chairman of DWS. He said: “In a fast moving, dynamic, highly competitive market, with customers demanding more from their partners, we made a strategic decision to separate our direct and indirect businesses to provide better focus and agility.”
The Daisy group will retain its enterprise telecoms business as well as an IT services company, Allvotec. Daisy was a listed company but was taken private in 2015.
Inflexion, founded in 1999, has a number of other technology investments, including telecoms software company Mycom OSI, cloud hosting company UKFast, and managed IT and communications company Ridgewall.
Co-founder and managing partner Simon Turner said: “The business Matthew and his team have built up is testament to what the hard work of an ambitious entrepreneur can achieve. DWS is exceptionally well placed to continue its organic and acquisition-led growth as it builds its market position further.”
