CCOOMMMMSS N NEEWWSS
BYTES... KNIGHT ADVISES
$100BN
Zoom has reported unprecedented
growth over the last three months with
users surpassing 300 million worldwide.
Analysts are predicting the company is
on its way to $100bn valuation. Zoom’s
market capitalisation in June was around
$58.6bn – over 94 times its fiscal 2020
revenues.
FOURNET
According to FourNet, technology and
remote-working decisions made by
public and private sector organisations
during the coronavirus lockdown should
be revisited to maximise potential
opportunities, now that more business
premises are beginning to re-open.
ESSEX
Construction of a new full-fibre
broadband network has finished and
gone live in rural north Essex during
lockdown. The network will provide
access to some of the UK’s fastest
speeds to thousands of residents and
businesses following years of poor
digital connectivity, according to County
Broadband
EACS FOR THIRD
DEAL IN 2020
DURING LOCKDOWN,
TECHNOLOGY and telecoms
adviser Knight Corporate
Finance has completed three
deals most recently advising IT
managed service provider EACS
on its multi-million funding
package with Shawbrook Bank.
“The ICT sector has been
critical in keeping the UK open
for business and deserves
recognition for this” commented
Knight CF Director Adam Zoldan.
“The buoyancy of the sector
has been reflected in the strong
deal flow and continued
commitment from buyers,
sellers, funders and investors”.
“All credit to EACS
management team who were
able to deliver at a challenging
time for a fund-raise, I am sure
the Channel as a whole will take
heart from this success story.
Our view is that a combination
of recurring revenue model and
compelling growth
opportunities will ensure the
value creation prospects will
remain strong for some time”
said Adam Zoldan.
Zoldan continued “We have
seen an awful lot of talk,
negativity and commentator
speculation. At Knight we saw
first-hand how the channel took
stock of the situation and
worked tirelessly to ensure that
their customers had the
solutions and tools to deliver
effective remote working. It felt
obvious to us that this huge
positive impact on UK
businesses would be
appreciated by funders and
investors alike, and this has
been reflected in the continued
deal activity”.
UNION STREET LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE
ABILLITY APP
UNION STREET TECHNOLOGIES
an app to quickly check the
has launched a new mobile app
balance of their accounts and
for its aBILLity billing platform.
manage payees, we’ve
The app has been designed to
developed our app to provide
complement the existing
easy access to contact
features of the core aBILLity
information, customer data, and
platform, providing a high-level
management reporting that can
overview of billing activities and
give a snapshot of how billing
access to customer information.
operations are performing.
Discussing the inspiration
“This enables staff that may
behind the app, Head of Sales
not be directly involved with
and Marketing, Vincent Disneur,
billing to access the information
said, “During consultations with
they require from anywhere at
our user community, one thing
any time without the need to
that repeatedly came up was a
access a PC or to contact billing
desire for on demand access to
personnel. It also offers
certain information held within
business continuity advantages
aBILLity’s database. Similar to
which are particularly relevant
how banking customers can use
in light of current events.”
Wildix announce loan scheme for partners
TECHNOLOGY FUNDER AND
accredited CBILS lender, Tower
Leasing, has created a joint
collaboration with Global UC&C
Vendor Wildix to enable Wildix
Partners to sell their services
through the British Business
Bank and Government-backed
finance scheme.
The Coronavirus Business
Interruption Loan Scheme
(CBILS), delivered through 60+
British Business Bank accredited
lenders and partners, is
designed to support the
continued provision of finance to
UK smaller businesses (SMEs)
during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The scheme enables lenders to
with Asset Finance for advances
provide facilities of up to £5m to
between £1k and £30k.
smaller businesses across the
Ian Rowan (pictured), Senior
UK who are experiencing lost or
Channel Manager said of the
deferred revenues, leading to
new collaboration “We first saw
ongoing disruptions to their cash
the CBILS scheme a few months
flow.
back and wondered how we may
Tower Leasing is accredited
use this to help our partners
for CBILS via the British Business
keep the wheels turning. As soon
Bank and able to provide support
as we saw that Tower Leasing
was an approved lender we
contacted them straight away to
try and establish a relationship;
it was wonderful to see they had
the same appetite as us to help
the channel. This collaboration
will go a long way to help our
partners continue to operate in a
time that many people are
finding challenging.”
6 | Comms Business Magazine | July 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk