Save9

Business Loans Case Study

The Company

Leading internet technology service provider Save9 is the first business in Scarborough to receive an investment from Finance Yorkshire.

Save9 provides expert technical services and solutions including web development, telecoms and ‘cloud computing’ - a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process business applications and data. Clients include Dale Power Solutions and all five West Yorkshire Councils.

Managing Director Steve Bromham said: “Our Cloud WorkSpace product enables businesses to run all their software online and store company data on secure internet servers. This enables firms to do away with costly software purchases or upgrades and space-consuming IT hardware. It can save a great deal of money, allowing businesses to grow much faster.”

The Challenge

Save9 first heard about Finance Yorkshire after attending one of the organisation’s workshops in Scarborough and finding out more about how they help SMEs across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Managing Director Steve Bromham said: “Following a period of self-funding over 18 months, where all our resources and efforts went into developing the company ourselves, we realised we needed some outside investment to ensure we have a durable competitive advantage.”

The Solution

A business loan from Finance Yorkshire has helped Save9 grow further.

“They appealed to us because their focus is helping businesses to grow – that’s their primary objective,” said Steve.

“We also really appreciated the support we received and felt we had a strong point of contact in Investment Manager Ian Atkinson who helped us review our business plan and strategy and identify our core focus for the cloud computing project.”

The deal was introduced to Finance Yorkshire by Martin Bell of Red Sky Corporate Services who helped the company with its application.

The Investment Rationale

Finance Yorkshire invested in Save9 alongside Cellular Solutions Holdings and Business Enterprise Fund.

Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Ian Atkinson said: “Save9 were in a similar position to many businesses in our region in that self-funding can sometimes only get a business so far.

“SMEs need help to meet the gaps in the market for the funding required for development and that’s where we come in.”

Future Expectations

Save9 has now set up data-centre hosting in Germany and the UK that is classified as Tier III - an industry benchmarking standard that indicates the highest levels of service availability and disaster recovery are maintained.

“This means if the UK data-centre fails the German one acts as back-up, offering reassurance for our customers,” said Steve.

The company is enhancing its current cloud computing offer to business customers thanks to the funding – its latest version of Cloud WorkSpace supports iPad, Android and Blackberry Playbook users – and is also looking into adding social networking capabilities as well as building a distribution channel.

“We need to keep continually innovating in order to develop the next cutting-edge cloud computing products and the funding will help us to do that,” added Steve.

Note: this case study is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire