Maven Capital Partners and Scottish Investment Bank exit Incremental

Private equity firm Maven Capital Partners and the Scottish Investment Bank have achieved four times their original investment in a Glasgow-based digital technology company.

Left to right are Craig Donnelly, Neil Logan and Stuart Kerr of Incremental Group. Picture: Stewart Attwood

The two investors have exited Incremental Group in a sale to Edinburgh-based Dunedin after initially backing it two years ago.

Incremental, led by chief executive Neil Logan, helps clients including Aggreko, Total and Scottish Leather Group benefit from technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

The company, which employs 125 people across sites which also include Inverurie, London, Manchester and Northwich, has grown significantly since the investment with its order book increasing more than four-fold on the previous year.

In the current financial year, revenue has risen 60 per cent to £6.6 million with earnings doubling to £1m. The company said the investment by Dunedin will enable the business to progress towards its target £60m of revenues and a workforce of 500 by 2022.

Julie Glenny, investment director at Maven, said: “Maven’s exit from Incremental is an excellent result for our investors.

“Generating a 4.1-times return in just two years stands as a testament to the Incremental management teams’ ability and ambition to build a successful digital services business, but also Maven’s capability to support entrepreneurial smaller businesses and help them achieve their growth aspirations.”

Simon Rowan, partner at Dunedin who led the deal, said its investment in the business “aligns closely with our strategy to support businesses with a technological edge that have the ability to develop strong positions in their space”.

“Incremental has performed exceptionally well and with further funding and our support behind it, is well placed to capitalise on the compelling opportunities for growth. The IT services market is one of the fastest growing technology segments and we look forward to working with the team as they reinforce their position as market leaders in this space.”

Advisers on the deal included Dickson Minto, Burness Paull, EY and BDO.