Having founded his own business by 21, and sold it in his early 30s, tech entrepreneur Jay Ball is going again – and this time he’s using M&A.
The company: early starters
Ambitious Flotek CEO Jay Ball (below) began his career 20 years ago, in sales at Carphone Warehouse. Three years later, at just 21, he founded DataKom in Bridgend. In 10 years he grew this into the biggest telecom business headquartered in Wales with a £4.5m turnover, offices in Aberystwyth and Bristol, more than 60 employees and 2,000-plus B2B customers. Southern Communications Group (SCG) bought the business for an undisclosed sum in April 2019 and Ball stayed on for a year to see the management transition through. After a brief period as CEO of Cardiff-based IT services business Springo, Ball decided to go again, and before turning 40 had started Flotek. With him is FD Dave Middleton, who trained as an ACA with Grant Thornton before specialising in tech at Knight Corporate Finance, and MD Malcolm Holland, who’d met Ball at SCG and also had experience of M&A as head of integrations there.
The personality: hundred-day plans
In August 2024, Flotek completed the acquisition of Midlands-based IT and cyber provider Colbek Systems for an undisclosed sum – the 12th business Flotek bought in its first two years. M&A is fundamental to the business’s aggressive strategy of service growth and regional expansion.
Jay Ball (above) sees seamless integration as key to swift, successful acquisitions – in IT, telecoms and data infrastructure across the UK – with 100-day integration plans setting out goals and KPIs. “Our focus when approaching potential targets is always to create win-win deal structures,” he says. “By establishing trust with sellers from day one, we facilitate smoother, more successful integration processes.”
Ball takes a shrewd approach to the high-level assessment of potential targets. If a win-win situation isn’t on the table, he’ll try to work with the business, which may be a competitor: “We establish a longer-term relationship with potential sellers, align our goals and assist them in achieving the necessary value for a successful future exit.”
The acquisitions: deals, deals, deals
Just three months after being founded, Flotek announced it had raised “substantial” backing from Tower Leasing to fund its aggressive acquisition strategy. The first acquisition using these funds was Gower Business Systems, completed in September 2022. Gower added £1.2m to group turnover.
In November 2022, Flotek acquired South West-based MazingTree, and in December, Swansea-headquartered Cloud9ine Communications.
In 2023 it acquired Saecom, Ikona, Liberty Solutions and Toolk-IT in Wales, ECS in Chester, and Orbiss in the South West. With the acquisition of OES earlier this year, Flotek’s group turnover increased to more than £10m per annum.
Its go-to financial and corporate finance adviser during this period has been GS Verde.
The future: going for growth
Currently with 150 employees, Flotek has seven regional offices and a new head office in Bridgend. It has strong partnerships with brands such as CEMEX, and several NHS Trusts. It has also collaborated with tech leaders such as Microsoft, Kaseya and SonicWall.
“We’ve grown from zero to £12m in two years,” says Ball. “If we can double that within the next two years, we’ll be very happy. As long as we maintain our culture and values, we are happy to continue growing.”