BDO Fund Leads €10m Blueface Finance Round

/ 6th March 2017 /

The BDO Development Capital Fund is leading a €10m finance round in Blueface to accelerate international expansion plans by the company.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Dublin, Blueface’s proprietary cloud voice platform services business customers of all sizes ranging from SMEs through to multinationals.

Blueface currently has over 50 employees operating from its headquarters in Dublin. It plans to increase this number by 80 to over 130 by 2022 across its markets in Ireland, Europe and the US.

As part of the investment Anthony O’Driscoll, Investment Director of The BDO Development Capital Fund, has joined the Blueface Board. Andrew Bourg, the fund’s Head of Investments, commented: “We are backing Blueface’s goal of becoming a significant international player in its chosen market segments.”

According to Blueface CEO Alan Foy: “Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in our journey and will enable us to continue to hire the best and brightest here in Ireland and in our new international offices.”

Enterprise Ireland is also participating in the funding round, having previously invested €330,000..

Blueface’s international expansion strategy is driven by the significant and projected uptake of UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service). This spans hosted voice, landline and mobile services, messaging, conferencing, global services, workforce mobility and a suite of cloud based business applications.

Beauchamps and Deloitte acted for The BDO Development Capital Fund while Blueface was advised by Mason Hayes & Curran.

Blueface booked a loss of €322,000 in the year ending March 2016. Blue Face Ltd's debtor book expanded by 50% to €559,000 while period-end liabilities amounted to €1.4m. Net worth at year-end was €514,000. Blueface employed 31 people in 2015/16, earning an average of €40,000.

Shareholders include the Iveagh family and entrepreneur Dylan Collins, who have invested around €800,000 in the venture.

Photo: Alan Foy (centre) with Anthony O’Driscoll (left) and Andrew Bourg. (Pic: Shane O"Neill)