BGF invests £2.25m in Abacus e-Media

The investment will be used to boost the company's sales and marketing activity, develop its software platforms and aid its expansion into neighbouring markets including B2C publishing, professional institutions and events.

BGF stated it was attracted to Abacus because of interesting market fundamentals. The global web content management market is worth around $1bn and is forecast to grow by 14% between 2009 and 2014, according to research consultancy Gartner.

Company
Abacus specialises in content management systems (CMS) and web design through Webvision, as well as audience development through ADvance. Editors and journalists use these software systems to publish digital content.

Abacus's client base is made up of B2B publishers and corporates including Centaur Media, Thomson Reuters, UBM, Emap and The Law Society.

Established in 1997, the business employs 70 people across its offices in London and Portsmouth. In 2012 Abacus reported revenues of £4.5m.

People
BGF has appointed Nick Caplan as Abacus's non-executive director. Caplan was previously chief marketing officer of Logica and is the current chairman of Managed Networks, and IT services provider. Chris Hodges is an investment director at BGF. Steve Feigen is CEO of Abacus.

Advisers
Equity – Morrison & Foerster (Legal); KPMG (Financial due diligence).
Company – Icon Corporate Finance (Corporate finance).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• UK / Ireland
• Technology
• BGF (Business Growth Fund)
• United Kingdom