The investment from Seneca Partners will see the tech firm plough further capital into the continued innovation of its bespoke cloud solutions. The money will also help boost the team’s headcount by 20%, with new roles across the sales, marketing, implementation and support functions.
The news comes as Vapour celebrates its fourth year in business. Established in 2013 by CEO Tim Mercer, Financial Director Jason Sharp and Cloud Director Steve Dempsey, the company has now attracted £4m investment in total, including a £750,000 sum from Seneca back in 2016. The 31-strong team now has its sights set on £6m turnover by the end of 2018, with the goal being to double that revenue by 2020.
Having already relocated to its new 4,500sqft headquarters in Elland, bringing together its Leeds and Manchester teams, Vapour has established a secure integrated network operation to support its base of channel partners and end customers. But Tim now has his eyes set firmly on the future.
“The past four years have seen us cement our presence as a true cloud technology specialist,” he said. “Rather than diversifying like many tech companies do, and risk fragmenting our offering, we’ve remained focused on three things – secure network connectivity, voice communications and storage.
“Thanks to our own secure platform and evolving solutions which bring voice and data together, we’re now the trusted cloud tech partner for organisations ranging from local SMEs through to the UK’s leading resellers and their blue-chip brands. Our projects are becoming increasingly bespoke, but it’s because people are realising the sky’s the limits when it comes to advanced cloud solutions.”
Commenting on the decision to invest, Richard Manley, Managing Partner at Seneca said: “We’ve seen Vapour’s transition from a budding start-up venture to a key player in the attractive cloud space. The capabilities of their platform are superb, which enables them to deliver future-proofed and secure solutions to businesses throughout the UK.
“Their true specialism in this field sees them achieve enviable results for clients. This is therefore a very exciting time for them, in which we hope the investment will fuel the next chapter of their nationwide expansion.”
Vapour Cloud is based at Lowfields Business Park, minutes from the M62. The tech firm provides an array of secure cloud-based services including network connectivity, hosted servers, varied voice and data communications solutions, as well as storage, back up and replication services.