B & Capital invests in Be-Cloud

B & Capital completed a leveraged transaction in Be-Cloud in December 2021, investing through its RB Capital France 1 fund, which had secured 245 million dollars of commitments. Founder Lenny Vercruysse remained at the head of the business. Be-Cloud resells Microsoft cloud licences and the services built around them to small and medium-sized enterprises: marketing support, lead generation, user training, configuration and project deployment. It had historically sold directly to end customers before extending the same model to resellers, operating a network of approximately 110 partners across France and Belgium at the time of the transaction. It generated revenue of €1–100M. Eighteen months earlier it had obtained wholesaler status within Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider programme, an accreditation normally granted to larger distributors. That status allows it to supply licences to resellers rather than only to end users, which changes the economics: volume passes through the same commercial structure, and each reseller added extends the distribution without proportionate cost. The market for equipping SMEs with Microsoft products was fragmented between direct sellers and small integrators, and B & Capital invested to support the company’s structuring and its expansion beyond France. Oaklins acted as exclusive financial adviser, structuring both the debt and the equity of the transaction.