Serial mid-market acquirer 6 Degrees Group is at it again. The company has just announced that it’s buying Surrey-based Cloud Computing Centre - its eleventh piece of M&A since May 2011 (see 6 Degrees notches up tenth acquisition). 6 Degrees has also managed to secure £8m in new funding from backers Penta Capital.
Cloud Computing Centre looks like a fairly typical mid-market acquisition. With their limited scale but useful assets, people and accounts, companies like this are classic acquisition fodder for not only 6 Degrees but also competitors such as Pulsant and iomart. The purchase specifically boosts 6 Degrees’ virtualisation / cloud skills and services, which is a smart move given the direction in the mid-market.
So in just over a year, 6 Degrees has gone from start-up to significant player in the UK mid-market space. It now has £50m in annualised revenue, making it one of the larger mid-market consolidators around. It’s also managing to grow organically - as it absolutely should, given its market positioning and ambitions. Its latest tranche of funding can only be a boost to growth prospects too, although we expect the focus from here to be on integration and organic growth.