Access UK secures £50m investment deal for growth plan

IT | Tania Mason | 3 Apr 2011

The management team at accounting software provider Access UK has landed a £50m deal with venture capitalist Lyceum Capital to finance an ambitious expansion strategy.

Access offers a wide range of enterprise resources planning (ERP) software with particular expertise in accounting and HR systems. The charity sector is one of its primary target audiences and it counts the National Museum of Science and the Prostate Cancer Charity among its clients. Access’ solutions are aimed at organisations with over £2m income.

In Civil Society’s 2011 Accounting Software Survey, published in the May edition of Charity Finance magazine, Access software is used by 6 per cent of the 253 respondents and Dimensions, its main accounting software package, is used by 16 per cent of charities with annual income of over £10m. Some 75 per cent of Access users would recommend Access solutions to other charities.

Access’s management, led by chief executive Chris Bayne, will invest some of the £50m themselves with Lyceum making up the balance. The Access board will be boosted with four new members: Jeremy Hand and Phillip Buscombe from Lyceum, along with new non-executive director David England, a former chief operating officer at CS Group, and new chair Gareth Denley who has held senior executive positions at IBM UK, Spring Group plc and Rebus HR.

The expansion strategy will comprise rapid organic growth, relevant acquisitions of complementary solutions and ongoing new product development, particularly in software-as-a-service.

Bayne said the deal would mark “a significant step-change in the speed and scale of expansion” and that the charity sector would continue to be an important part of these plans.

According to the company, sales have grown 15 per cent over the past year.

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