Alantra advises Livingbridge and Ten10 on the sale of the business to Graphite Capital

Oct 2020

Sell-side advisory

Alantra has advised Livingbridge and the shareholders of Ten10, a leading independent quality engineering and software testing consultancy, on the sale of the business to Graphite Capital.

Livingbridge established Ten10 in 2015, having identified the potential to create a market leader in the sector by acquiring and merging two existing companies, Centre4Testing and The Test People.  Since then, Ten10 has become one of the fastest-growing software testing companies, with approximately 300 employees and offices in London, Leeds and Raleigh, North Carolina.  Its portfolio of blue-chip clients spans the financial, legal, retail, and public sectors.

Ten10 operates through three services lines: Ten10 Consulting, which enables organisations to implement new or upgraded software faster, more effectively and more frequently; Ten10 Academy, which develops the next generation of technology talent; and Ten10’s Hybrid Teams’ model, which combines the firm’s Consulting and Academy service lines to leverage its experience and knowledge alongside a talent solution for clients. 

The sale of Ten10 demonstrates the ongoing activity within the wider digital transformation ecosystem. This transaction follows the recent investment in Roboyo by MML Capital Partners, the investment in Chaucer by Business Integration Partners and the sale of Sol-Tec to ECI-owned IT Lab, all of which were advised by Alantra.

The Alantra team comprised partner Steve Currie, director Simon Roberts, associate Dave Bellis and analyst Joe Carpenter.

Simon Roberts, Director at Alantra, said: “We are delighted to have advised the shareholders of Ten10 on the sale of the business to Graphite Capital. Ten10 is already a market leader within the quality engineering and software testing space. With the support of an exceptional management team and a growing presence in the rapidly expanding DevOps and RPA sub-sectors, Ten10 is well positioned to capitalise on the market growth in the coming years. We look forward to following the continued success of the business as it further develops its market-leading offering alongside Graphite.”

Luke Bray at Livingbridge, said: “During the past five years, we have driven the transformation of Ten10 through M&A and an organic growth strategy, turning it into a leading software quality engineering business that is well positioned to continue growing and building market share.  We wish Chris and the team every success over the coming years.”

Chris Shaw, CEO of Ten10, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with Livingbridge to develop Ten10’s extraordinary potential.  With Livingbridge’s support, we have rapidly grown to become a market leader that is seen by our customers as a trusted partner thanks to the quality of our people, our technology and our reputation for technical and Agile expertise.”