BGF leads £5m round for Semafone

Semafone will use the fresh capital to fund the expansion of its existing US operations and meet the demands of a recent contractual agreement with telecommunications company BT Group.

BGF provided £4m in the round, acquiring a minority stake, with the additional £1m provided by Octopus and other existing shareholders.

BGF stated it was attracted to the deal by the company's roster of clients, management team and record of growth.

Previous funding
Octopus provided Semafone with £1.9m in 2010 to fund its national and international business development. The company then received an additional £1.5m from existing backers in 2012.

Company
Semafone is a provider of fraud prevention software used by call centres when taking payments over the phone. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Guildford, Surrey.

The software-as-a-service provider has a turnover of around £5m and employs a team of 38. Further to a recent partnership agreement with BT, its clients include Sky, Virgin Holidays, Talk Talk and Aviva Canada.

People
BGF investment director Alistair Brew will take a seat on the board at Semafone, with the BGF investment manager Will Gresty joining as observer. Tim Critchley is CEO of Semafone. Simon Andrews is a director at Octopus and currently has a seat on the board at Semafone.

Advisers
Equity – HW Corporate Finance (Corporate finance); Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co (Legal); Intuitus (IT due diligence); Shoosmiths (Legal).
Company – Smith & Williamson (Corporate finance); OTB Eveling (Legal).

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