Blume, a leading customer acquisition specialist for the legal sector, has been acquired by private equity house Sun European Partners.
The latest announcement comes off the back of Blume completing its first significant acquisition of Online Legal, and follows a record year of growth with the business doubling in headcount and turnover.
West Didsbury-based Blume recently rebranded from mmadigital and the investment will enable the company to accelerate its growth in the legal services market.
The deal puts Blume on track to reach 拢30m sales in 2023 and will see Rockpool Investments exit the business
Once the transaction completes, Blume will join an expanded Fletchers Group and take responsibility for Fletchers鈥� consumer operations including The Medical Law Network, a marketing network for medical negligence law firms owned by Fletchers and its customer-facing brand, Patient Claim Line.
Following the acquisition, Blume Group鈥檚 CEO Dez Derry will continue to lead Blume and join a wider group leadership team, which will also include Blume鈥檚 COO Steve Evans and Fletchers鈥� chief marketing officer Alex Kenny.
Derry said: 鈥淲e are thrilled to be partnering with Sun and Fletchers who share our vision, ambition and appetite for innovation. This is a landmark transaction for Blume which will take the business to the next level, giving us the ability to rapidly grow our foundation in partnership with a very strong capital partner.
鈥淭he added firepower provided by Sun鈥檚 investment, and the opportunity for Blume to build on Fletchers鈥� Patient Claim Line brand and its panel of law firms is a compelling proposition for the market.
鈥淚t will allow us to continue to help our clients prosper by providing more choice and flexibility through a wider portfolio of products and services.
鈥淲e have built an exceptional team and this deal will open up some new and exciting opportunities.鈥�
Alex Wyndham, principal at Sun European Partners says: 鈥淒ez and his management team have built a great business through a successful track record of organic growth and acquisitions, and we look forward to working with them to further maximise Blume鈥檚 potential.
鈥淭he transformation of the legal landscape in recent times makes this an exciting time for M&A. Areas that are insulated from recession such as personal injury and medical negligence means legal services is an attractive proposition, and this acquisition gives us a strong foothold in the sector.
鈥淲e are focused on seeking out and nurturing promising scale-ups such as Blume to help build the industries of the future and our expectation is that we will be completing more deals in this sector during the next 18 months.鈥�
Peter Haden, CEO of Fletchers Group said: 鈥淭he acquisition of Blume brings a high quality, growth-focused business to the group and creates the UK鈥檚 leading medical negligence customer acquisition specialists in the UK.
鈥淲hile our legal practice will operate as a separate entity, we are two highly complementary teams and big champions of the benefits that technology can bring to the sector, both as suppliers to law firms and to improve our service to clients.鈥�
The deal is subject to approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.