Bridges is delighted to announce its investment into Storetec, a digitisation and data storage business in which it has acquired a majority stake.

Storetec, based in Hull, provides outsourced document scanning, archive storage and cloud-based document management solutions to businesses in both the public and private sectors, including NHS Trusts, councils, FTSE 100 companies, professional services firms and SMEs. This enables organisations to protect their most sensitive data and build more sustainable digital workflows.

With so much of our daily lives now powered by technology – a trend accelerated by the rise of remote and digital working post-Covid – data security has become a significant ESG issue. According to the World Economic Forum, cybersecurity is now one of the five key risks facing businesses globally: more than 80% of UK companies have experienced a successful cyber-attack in the last year. This is creating strong demand for services that can help companies digitise and secure their critical data: the electronic data storage market is forecast to grow at about 15% in the coming years.

Storetec works with over 400 organisations each year. Over the last decade, it has digitised over 333m paper records: FreeDocs, its proprietary digital platform, now stores over 8,000GB of data. The company has multiple gold standard accreditations and has won numerous awards for the quality and security of its services, including Business of the Year (for its digitisation business) and Records Management Product of the Year (for FreeDocs) at the Document Management Awards. For customers, Storetec’s services enable improved data protection, regulatory compliance and archives access, and – by supporting their digitisation journey – lower carbon emissions via reduced paper consumption.

Bridges’ investment (via its Sustainable Growth Funds) will see it working in partnership with the existing management team, led by founder & CEO Neil Robson, to accelerate the growth of the business and support more clients in the U.K. and beyond. This will include embedding best-in-class impact management practices throughout the business to build an impact-led exemplar in the ESG services sector, with data security at its core.

Neil Robson, CEO at Storetec said:
“We’re excited to be partnering with Bridges at this critical stage of the business’s growth journey. We wanted an investor who understood our market, shared our values, and had a strong track record of helping businesses like ours to harness their growth and impact potential. Bridges fitted the bill perfectly.”

Simon Braham, partner at Bridges, said:
“In the last few years, the digitisation trend has accelerated rapidly. Protecting sensitive corporate and personal information has to be a priority for every organisation. We identified Storetec as a best-in-class operator in this sector, and we believe it has a really compelling market opportunity. We’re looking forward to partnering with Neil and the team to help accelerate Storetec’s growth and establish it as an ESG champion in the sector – drawing on our extensive experience of impact-driven value creation.”