The founders of the UK’s fastest growing technology company have bought back the business they sold to a billion pound FTSE firm just five years ago.
FTSE 100-listed Reed Elsevier snapped up online business-to-business marketplace Approved Index in 2008 for an undisclosed sum. London-based Reed Elsevier publishes information for the science, medical, legal, risk and business sectors and has a £6 billion turnover.
Approved Index’s co-founders used the proceeds from the sale to set up MVF Global, a Kentish Town-based business that uses technology to drum up new business for clients including EDF, British Gas, Mars and Nestle.
MVF was recently named the fastest growing technology company in the UK by the Sunday Times, with sales increases averaging 289% every year for the past three years.
The business, founded in 2009, turned over £13.9m last year and the company has now bought back Approved Index from Reed.
MVF co-founder and chief executive Titus Sharpe said: “It’s incredibly satisfying. It really was the making of me when I sold it. I have a great affection for the brand.”
A spokesperson for Reed said of the sale: "Reed Business Information’s increasing focus on paid content and online data services means that they were are not able to give the business the priority and investment it deserved, and the board didn’t see Reed Business Information as their best long term natural home as a result.”
Sharpe said Approved Index, which has 25 staff, will continue to operate as a separate business.
He said: “It’s been operating for nine years and it’s a profitable business. It’s the largest B2B marketplace in the UK and MVF have got some amazing marketing skills in house – we can really leverage this great brand and massively grow that marketplace.”
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
