Acora completes investment round with Palatine Private Equity

“Below is the press release in relation to our corporate activity from the week commencing 9th March 2020. Whilst it feels wholly inappropriate to release these messages now, I am duty-bound to do so in the interest of all Acora stakeholders. On behalf of all my totally committed Acora colleagues, who continue to fully support our customers, our wish is that you and your families remain safe and healthy.”

David Rabson, CEO at Acora

Acora completes an investment round with Palatine Private Equity UK headquartered managed services provider, Acora has completed an investment round with Palatine Private Equity LLP, which will help finance and support the next phase of growth. This partnership adds additional firepower both financially and at the Board level, to help accelerate the Group’s ambitious plans.

Acora was founded in 1986 as IT value-added reseller ADA Computer Systems Ltd, but underwent a transformation in 2006, with a focus and strategy on repeatable and valuable managed services, when current CEO David Rabson led a management buyout.

Acora now delivers a wide range of industry-leading managed 24/7 IT infrastructure, cloud and helpdesk services, working primarily with UK-headquartered global mid-market companies. Acora which operates from three UK operations centres, uses a highly automated and dynamic service management platform that drives operational efficiencies, speed and quality of customer experience and gives flexible and resilient support to its contracted customers. In July 2019 Acora completed the transformational acquisition of London-based Plan-Net, deepening the range of helpdesk services whilst also increasing its focus in the Legal, Insurance and Financial Services sectors.

Acora is led by Chairman Richard Atkins, CEO David Rabson, and CFO Gary Page, supported by a very strong senior management team and 300+ highly skilled staff with deep knowledge and experience in Private Cloud and Microsoft Cloud Services. Acora is an expert in designing, building and operating Microsoft365, Azure and Dynamics365 platforms and then creating a managed service support offer that allows its customers to concentrate on their business, not their IT.

“Acora offers a range of enterprise-class IT services designed to complement our customers’ capabilities, to increase their IT effectiveness today and to provide them with a competitive digital platform, that is resilient and fit for purpose looking to the future. We are extremely pleased to be joining forces with Palatine, from an early stage in our discussions it was clear to us that they would be the right team to help us drive our journey faster and help us build on our successes to date. Our collective ambition is well-aligned, which will benefit the Acora business, our people and as importantly our customers alike. The key focus now is to continue to develop and grow our capabilities to support our loyal staff and customer base. We anticipate making further corporate announcements throughout 2020.”

David Rabson, CEO at Acora

“We are delighted to have completed our investment in Acora. Throughout the process we have continued to be impressed by the quality of the senior management team, the strategy they have developed and the foresight they have shown in investing in high-quality people and processes ahead of growth.”

Tony Dickin, Partner at Palatine Private Equity

The business has transitioned from its roots as a VAR to now providing best in class cloud transformation and ongoing support services to its clients. The team have created an excellent platform to deliver fast-paced growth both via acquisition and additional investment in people and services.

We look forward to supporting the team’s value creation strategy going forward, specifically in helping the team convert the pipeline of buy and build opportunities they have highlighted.

Acora was advised by Paul Russell at BDO and Mark Howard at Charles Russell Speechlys and their respective teams, with additional Financial support from RSM. Palatine was advised by Rebecca Grisewood and her team at Gateley.