Clearwater advises Mobeus on its investment in Ellis Recruitment Group

Transaction

Mobeus on its investment in Ellis Recruitment Group

Buy-side

Undisclosed

Role

Adviser to Mobeus on its investment in Ellis Recruitment Group

Sector

Business Services

Region

United Kingdom

Clearwater has advised Mobeus, a leading institutional investor in the UK lower mid-market with a 25-year track record of providing funding to UK SMEs, on its investment in Ellis Recruitment Group (Ellis). Ellis is a specialist IT recruitment consultancy serving the Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) resourcing market.

Founded in 2010, Ellis has grown to become a specialist leader in Oracle and SAP consultant placements. Operating under distinct brands, Ellis has established a strong presence in Europe and North America, utilising its proprietary database of high-quality, enterprise software consultants to assist clients with major ERP implementation projects.

The market for ERP software consultants is resilient and growing, driven by regular upgrade cycles and migration from on-premise to cloud-based platforms. With the support of Mobeus and incoming industry veteran Andy McRae as Chairman, Ellis aims to continue to expand its geographic and platform reach, delivering high-quality consultants in a persistently underserved and complex market.

Mobeus will be a significant minority shareholder in Ellis, providing strategic guidance and further funding to the business as it accelerates its growth in Europe and the US. This investment comes from Mobeus latest UK-focused small-cap buyout fund, Mobeus V, and represents its sixth investment since its first close in 2022.

The investment was sourced by Mobeus’ Dominic Draysey, with execution led by Jordan Kay with support from Richard Babington and Issy Jackson. Mobeus Portfolio Partner, Guy Blackburn and Jordan Kay will join the board on completion.

We are delighted to be invited to play a key role in the next stage of Ellis’s development. Since its establishment in 2010, Ellis has rapidly grown to become the market leader in Oracle interim resourcing in the UK and is well on the way to achieving the same position in the US. We have formulated an aggressive hiring plan in both geographies to achieve this, with a view to more than trebling our recruitment consultant base over the next five years.
Richard Babington, Partner, Mobeus

I’m delighted that Clearwater has been able to advise Mobeus on its investment in Ellis. Ellis is a leader in the ERP market, an attractive niche of the IT staffing market where it has built an excellent reputation as the go-to resourcing partner. I’m confident that the partnership will further accelerate Ellis’s growth in key territories, notably in the US, and we look forward to seeing the business flourish in the coming years.
Mark Maunsell, Director, Clearwater