Panoramic puts £1m into cloud

Panoramic Growth Equity, the Glasgow-based private equity vehicle set up by a trio of Scottish businessmen, yesterday unveiled a deal to pump £1 million into software firm Concorde.

Reading-based Concorde will use the cash to launch a “software as a service” (Saas) product next year into the data centre and cloud computing markets.

Panoramic was launched in 2009 by venture capitalists Stephen Campbell, David Wilson and Malcolm Kpedekpo.

The investment in Concorde was made through Panoramic’s first enterprise capital fund, an over-subscribed £34m pot of cash used to pump between £500,000 and £2m into “privately owned growth companies”.

Wilson said: “We are delighted to have acquired an equity stake in Concorde, which has all the hallmarks of success: hugely talented management; a niche market that is growing fast; and the spirit and desire to grow the business.

“With opportunities in cloud computing and the data centre world, these are very exciting times for both Concorde and Panoramic.”

Market researchers at Gartner estimate that the Saas market will be worth $12.1 billion (£7.7bn) this year, rising to $21.3bn by 2015.