Manchester’s Wax Digital has appointed industry veteran, John Thompson as its new chair, as it looks to grow in the UK and beyond.
The firm, which also has offices in the Netherlands and New York, specialises in Saas eProcurement software.
“We are delighted that John has joined the business. He brings a wealth of experience in growing SaaS companies and his depth of knowledge across our sector and beyond will be invaluable as we look to expand and build out our future growth strategy,” said Paul Ellis, CEO at Wax Digital.
“He has successfully supported SaaS businesses on their growth paths and through international expansion and really understands the procurement space. The US in particular is an exciting market for us and working through our partner network we have managed to secure major contracts in specialist areas such as Aerospace and Defence. John’s experience of working with US enterprise customers will also help us as further business in this territory is key to our growth.”
Thompson was the co-founder and CEO of Commerce Decisions, which was acquired by QinetiQ in 2008 for £9.85m. He then became managing director of QinetiQ’s procurement services business unit, before taking on a number of non-executive and advisory roles for privately owned venture capital or private equity-backed tech businesses.
Wax Digital is backed by the private equity firm, August Equity Partners, which has held 72.83% of the company since November 2015 – the remainder of shares belong to Ellis.
August Equity approached Ellis directly based on 30% growth in recurring revenue and that at the time Wax managed £5bn-worth of indirect spend. That has increased substantially, with it now managing £23bn of spend annually across 102 countries.
It’s most recently reported figures showed sales of £5.6m (YE: 2016) but over the last 2 years it says that’s grown to around £7.6m ($10m).
“Wax Digital has enjoyed strong year-on-year growth in both revenues and profits, underpinned by a class-leading, highly intuitive product portfolio. With market adoption of cloud-based eProcurement on the rise, it is a dynamic and innovative business to be involved with and I’m looking forward to helping it achieve its ambitious targets,” said Thompson.
