Sabio accelerates growth plans with multi-million pound investment from Horizon Capital

Leading customer engagement technology specialist details plans to double business size within 3-5 years; announces funding to support acquisition strategy

Customer contact technology specialist Sabio has announced that it will be accelerating its growth strategy having secured a significant multi-million pound investment from UK-based growth investor, Horizon Capital. In addition to investing in the business, Horizon Capital will also help drive the company’s growth with £30 million of available funding to support Sabio’s acquisition strategy.

Sabio has delivered an average 25.4% annual international sales growth for the last two years. Horizon Capital’s investment will build on this growth in a drive to double the size of the business over the next three to five years through both organic and acquisition-driven growth plans.

Following completion of the investment, Lee Shorten will continue as Sabio’s Chairman and the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Andy Roberts, will become the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Sabio’s team of founding directors – Paul Began, Adam Faulkner, Sebastian Henkes and Kenneth Hitchen – will remain invested in the business and are committed to supporting the company in its next phase of business growth.

“Partnering with a growth investment specialist firm makes sense for Sabio at this stage in our development as it gives us access to both the funds and expertise we need to accelerate our growth strategy,” commented Sabio’s new Chief Executive Officer, Andy Roberts. “How organisations engage with their customers has never been more critical, and there’s a clear international demand for a technology specialist such as Sabio that can help businesses to close the gap between digital and traditional customer contact channels. It’s an opportunity where Sabio can really add value for our customers and, with Horizon Capital’s support, we’re looking to double our business over the next three to five years and establish Sabio as the dominant player in our market.” Based in the UK and Singapore Sabio supports many of the world’s leading customer service organisations, helping them to radically transform their customer engagement through world-class solutions from technology leaders such as Avaya, Verint and Nuance. Founded in 1998, Sabio simplifies customer engagement by enabling Digital Front Door strategies that create exactly the right balance between self-service, assisted service and contact centre operations.

“Sabio sets the standard for technology deployment in the contact centre sector, and is particularly well placed to help organisations – both in the UK and internationally – as they evolve to meet the changing demands of today’s increasingly mobile and socially-connected customers,” added Simon Hitchcock, Partner at Horizon Capital and leader of the firm’s Sabio investment team. “Sabio is at the heart of this transition and, as an acknowledged sector leader with a proven track record of growth, is clearly exactly the kind of high quality, fast growth business that will strengthen Horizon Capital’s portfolio of technology services businesses.”

“With a strong management board and team of some 200 solutions, services and support specialists that is unmatched in our industry already in place, now is a great time for Sabio to move forward with new investment to support its growth and acquisitions programme,” said Sebastian Henkes, one of Sabio’s original founders and the company’s previous Managing Director. “In addition to funding, Horizon Capital will also bring proven growth expertise to the Sabio board – ensuring that the company continues to help set the contact centre technology agenda over the coming years. “Sabio’s founding team will remain significantly invested in the business, and we look forward to continuing to support the company under its new leadership,” he continued.

About Horizon Capital:

We partner with entrepreneurial management teams to unlock growth potential by providing capital, operations and development support, and help with targeted acquisitions

We invest between £10m and £60m of equity in fast-growing, UK-headquartered, mid-sized technology enabled businesses from our third fund of £330m

Over the last ten years, via our three funds, we will have invested and provided more than £1.5 billion of funding to grow and develop SMEs in the UK

Since 2000 we have raised more than £800m of capital across three funds and acquired over 120 companies, including 99 add-on acquisitions for 25 platform investments

Our current portfolio includes: Adapt, Bellrock, Briefing Media, Carewatch, Clearswift, Compact Media Group, Coryton Advanced Fuels, EAT, Isotrak, Sequence Care, Style Research and TotalMobile

For more information, visit https://www.horizon.pe/