The DMW Group

Technology consultancy

Sector
Technology
Region
London
Date of investment
November 2017
Exit date
July 2020
GCP team members
Website
Contributing Sustainable Development Goals

Background

Our investment partnership with DMW started alongside their founding shareholders, in November 2017. They are a specialist cloud and data services business that enabled clients to transform IT platforms, migrate infrastructure and applications to the cloud and achieve business outcomes through organisation change and technology.

DMW had originated as a specialist consultancy advising clients in relation to technology strategy and large-scale IT infrastructure projects. Its clients included large financial services organisations, energy companies and public sector organisations.

The management team wanted a partner who understood the service model intimately, had strong technology credentials, who could be hands on in supporting growth and who had experience of helping to manage long-term succession planning.

Between 2017 and 2020 DMW doubled headcount, doubled revenue and doubled profitability. It also invested heavily in its go to market approach and gained recognition for its exceptional combination of technical capability and collaborative culture.

This led to an unsolicited approach from Credera, a subsidiary of Omnicom Group, which had heavily mapped the UK market and identified DMW as a best in class acquisition target. We managed a remote only transaction through the Covid pandemic and delivered a heavily tailored deal that exited GCP but gave management the opportunity to scale and grow value whilst retaining autonomy within the acquiring group.

Driving Growth

  • Investment in sales and marketing to simplify service messaging and drive new client acquisition
  • Extension of service offering into software engineering which broadened the potential client universe and grew DMW’s share of wallet with existing clients

People & Organisation

  • Board evolution, external and internal appointments and long-term succession planning
  • Well-supported People function, including appointment of People Director and investment in recruitment engine

Systems & Processes

  • Investment in management information and focus on data driven KPIs
  • Pipeline methodology and visibility supported strong forward-looking exit

Funding for growth

  • A light-weight funding structure at completion which was funded entirely by GCP and created a sizeable sweet equity pot for management
  • Material investment in business infrastructure including Finance, People, Sales and Marketing functions

Delivering the best outcomes

  • An accelerated growth story that overperformed versus plan and which led to the business delivering Year 5 performance in Year 3
  • A carefully crafted exit that achieved the right home for the business as a strategic catalyst of a large corporate, ongoing equity incentivisation and cross-sell opportunities

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