£350,000 boost from Finance Birmingham

Sky is the limit as firm boosts cloud services with funding help.

A fast-growing re-seller of SAP’s cloud based Business One solution – an enterprise resource planning system aimed at SMEs – has secured £350,000 of equity funding from Finance Birmingham.

The cash injection will allow Ascarii Limited, the UK’s only dedicated cloud SAP Business One Partner, to create at least 12 new jobs over the next three years.

Ascarii Limited, which employs 12 people and has offices in Warwickshire and Tyne & Wear, will also use the funding to focus on new sales and marketing activity to drive revenue growth.

CEO Stuart Wilson said: “The support we have received from Finance Birmingham will play a pivotal role in the growth of the business and will allow us to recruit additional sales and implementation staff.

“Over the past two years, we have seen clear evidence of demand for the cloud based Business One solution, and this funding will enable us to take full advantage of the market opportunity that is presenting itself.”

He added: “We pride ourselves on delivery and have therefore been reluctant to accelerate the growth without the requisite number of support and implementation staff to ensure that we can exceed customer expectations. We have recruited additional technical staff and the funding will afford us the confidence to grow at a more rapid rate.”

The funding has been provided by Finance Birmingham as part of its £9 million Regional Growth Fund – a pot of money open to SMEs across the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP area. Businesses from all sectors are considered, providing they have plans to develop and grow.

Ian Fairclough, Finance Birmingham’s Investment Director, said: “Ascarii is a fast-growing cloud based business, a re-seller of Business One.

“The company has developed its own cloud platform to host the data of its customers and that of other re-sellers. It has won numerous customers, including Blue Chips, on long-term contracts and is well-placed to take advantage of the increased demand for a cloud based Business One solution.”

He added: “This investment will support the significant growth of the business by funding working capital and additional overhead investment as it continues to grow.”