BGF invests to boost PMC’s global tech & commerce ambitions

BGF has announced an investment in PMC to support the technology service provider's global growth plans across retail, commerce, and technology sectors.

PMC, established in 2001 and headquartered in the UK, provides consulting, professional services, digital engineering, and managed services to more than 120 customers worldwide, operating in 24 countries. The company's client list includes familiar names such as WHSmith, National Express, Primark, Crew Clothing, and World Duty Free.

The company employs around 500 people across the UK and India and is currently expanding by establishing a new global centre of excellence in Vadodara, India. The facility is designed to accommodate the firm's targeted global workforce expansion to over 1,000 staff members, supporting PMC's growing international customer base with dedicated teams.

BGF's funding is set to help PMC expand its portfolio of digital engineering and managed services on a worldwide scale. The investment is also earmarked for further developments to PMC's Graphene Commerce Platform, which aims to assist businesses with digital transformation and support integrated commerce solutions across both digital and physical channels.

Board and leadership

PMC will continue to be guided by its current leadership, with founder Paul Mason and former Kingfisher executive Paul Worthington remaining on the board, while Richard Lowe serves as Chief Executive Officer. The minority investment deal was led by Duncan Wade and Harry Kernick from BGF's Reading team, both of whom will provide ongoing strategic support to PMC's board and leadership group as the firm implements its growth plans.

Speaking about the investment, Paul Mason, Founder of PMC, said:

"It was important to find a partner that really understood our approach to talent-driven transformation and valued our culture, deep domain knowledge, customer-first mindset and global delivery ambition. The BGF team is fully supportive of and aligned to the incredible opportunity that the rapidly changing commerce technology landscape provides us."

Richard Lowe, Chief Executive Officer of PMC, explained:

"BGF was a natural choice for us as we take this next step in our growth journey. We look forward to working with their team closely as we continue our global expansion and further develop our services for our growing commerce customer base."

Growth strategy

BGF, one of the UK and Ireland's most active investors in growth capital, has invested over GBP £4.5 billion in more than 600 companies since its inception in 2011. Its approach focuses on minority, non-controlling partnerships that aim to align with the long-term ambitions of management teams.

Duncan Wade, Investor at BGF, commented on the partnership:

"PMC's exceptional team of sector specialists deliver independent and mission critical technology services to an impressive list of loyal customers based across the globe. Under the leadership of Paul Mason as founder and Richard Lowe as CEO, the company has built a market leading reputation, driving strong growth and investing in high-performing talent in both India and the UK. We are excited to support PMC in its next phase of growth as it continues to develop and deliver trusted and innovative solutions to the Retail, B2C/D2C and Commerce markets."

The funding is expected to accelerate PMC's hiring and technology investment, with a particular focus on expanding the managed services and digital engineering teams and further development of the Graphene Commerce Platform.

PMC's strategic shift to scale up operations, particularly in India, is viewed as a response to rising global demand for digital transformation across commerce sectors. The company has stated its ambition to deliver integrated digital commerce solutions to clients in both established and emerging markets, leveraging its experience in the retail and direct-to-consumer fields.

The deal gives PMC access to both growth capital and expertise from BGF's team, intended to support its continued international expansion and ongoing development of service offerings for a growing client portfolio.