We are a machine-to-machine European managed service provider. In essence, what we do is provide the ability for assets out in the field — whether that’s water meters, vehicles, or parking meters — to connect to an operations centre, increasing the efficiency of managing them.
What first attracted us to Wireless Logic was growth. They had a fantastic history of growth, fantastic visibility of future growth, and that’s the most important thing for us. They also had a very robust business model with strong visibility of future revenue and earnings — and that’s quite a long-term visibility, which is relatively rare in the opportunities we look at. They had almost zero churn at the end of some relatively long-term contracts, so they had great downside protection. That’s what attracted us from a numbers perspective — and then meeting Oliver and Phil, the two co-founders of the business, and the rest of the team inspired us further. They were really a team we wanted to work with, and who wanted to work with us.
I really liked the guys and I just knew they had the determination. They liked our business — but more importantly than just liking it, they really understood our business. It’s very important, in my view, that your investors understand what you’re trying to achieve and the market you’re operating in.
I think immediately post-investment is always an interesting time. You learn a lot more about the business when you are on the other side of the table, so to speak. We quickly came to an understanding that the business needed a couple more people to help support their strong growth trajectory and future forecast.
What I am most proud of at Wireless Logic is being part of that team. The people are very important — a new chairman, a new CFO, helping bring in a new CTO — and helping the business think about their entry points into Europe, which culminated in entering three European countries at the same time.
Entrepreneurs looking at new investors are always concerned about how involved they’re going to be — whether strategically or operationally. ECI were very clear: we can add value in terms of your geographical expansion and your strategic direction, but we are not here to be involved operationally. And they weren’t. They let us get on with driving the business, and where they helped most was in supporting our international expansion and how we approached strategic decisions.
It’s a fantastic business in a fantastic team and a great market — but it all does come down to people. You need the right people managing even a great opportunity, and in Oliver and the team, we had that.
Where ECI particularly helped us was in our international expansion. When we started, we were a UK-only operation, and through their help and guidance we expanded into Germany, France, and Spain. Their strategic input was also very valuable — they made us focus on key strategic decisions rather than trying to do everything, which you can be prone to do as a growing business. Their appointment of a chairman was also hugely valuable, as he brought real international experience and a strong network of contacts.
The other thing I would say about ECI — and probably one of the biggest compliments I can pay them — is that when we were looking at our next investor after ECI, what we wanted was simply a slightly bigger ECI to take us to the next stage.
