Andy Rogers & Vlad Nanu, Amdaris: Sticking the landing

Amdaris is an award-winning software development and digital transformation specialist, headquartered in Bristol. Led by Co-Founders Vlad Nanu and Andy Rogers, the company embeds teams of software developers within its customers, facilitating seamless collaboration and tailored solutions.

BGF first invested in Amdaris in 2020, to fund the company’s international expansion strategy. Over the course of three years, Amdaris successfully scaled its operations, opened new offices in Europe, and increased developer headcount from 250 to 735, becoming one of the fastest-growing technology businesses in the UK. In 2023, it was acquired by Insight Enterprises Inc, a Fortune 500 solutions integrator.

We sat down with Andy and Vlad, to discuss their entrepreneurial journey, their vision for Amdaris and the partnership with BGF, plus their advice for entrepreneurs just starting out:

Vlad: When you’re a young entrepreneur, you have two things which do not happen. First of all, you don’t listen. And also, if you do listen, you don’t understand anyway.

Andy: Hi, I’m Andy Rogers

Vlad: And I’m Vlad Nanu

Andy: And we’re the Co-Founders of Amdaris.

Vlad: We started back in 2009, to democratize and make sure everybody has access to software development — any client, big or small, with any ideas from cloud, mobile or AI — have a possibility to develop and innovate something.

Andy: We were able to build highly competent teams of software developers that companies just couldn’t get their hands on.

Vlad: We were young and we wanted to change the world, we wanted to change the industry. We were very, very, very committed. And you learn, you learn really quickly — things like how to build a productive team, how to do marketing properly, how to build a sales team. So you have to experience and do it yourself, but you also have to listen sometimes for advice.

Andy: Where do you get the advice from? Build good people around you, build good advisors, have people who can mentor you. We went to Cranfield University, we went on the Business Growth Programme.

Vlad: That word ‘growth’ was always on our mind. We used it everywhere. In 17 years, we’ve been growing every single quarter since. We never missed a quarter, even when we lost customers, when we had really tough times, and we had plenty of those…

The one which will relate to a lot of people is COVID times. We were sitting on 10 million at least on an order book and, within two weeks, it shrinks to less than half a million. Two months later, our order book was bigger than we had before COVID.

Andy: I think one of the proudest things for me in building Amdaris has been building a team — building a team of passionate people who believed in a vision, believed in the growth, and put that work in every day, to build what we were able to build.

Vlad: At the beginning, we really quickly grew up to 100 people. It took us maybe a year, or maybe two years, but we got to that point quite quickly. And then obviously, a few years later, without realising, I start saying we are 1000 people.

Andy: BGF coming on board, investing in us, was a game changer for us. They were like, “We’re going to come and leave you with the lion’s share of the business, but we’re going to walk beside you on this journey to success.”

Vlad: And what they promised is exactly what they delivered.

Andy: They were invested across every kind of industry. They understood business really, really well.

Vlad: One of the ideas was to have this kind of cross-portfolio support, which I think we did a fantastic job, and so did BGF, introducing us to the existing portfolio — helping us to create new use cases, explore new customers, new industries.

So that relationship was not just about investment; BGF was a partner, who took us on a journey to build a sustainable business, in such a way that it becomes attractive to future investors or a future buyer.

We opened an office in Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria. We expanded massively in Middle East.

Andy: You’re very aware of the scale that you’re achieving and the growth, and it was unprecedented. Coming out of COVID, we really felt that increase in momentum. It was coming up to that point where, well, if we played this right, we could land this absolutely perfectly. And actually, that’s exactly what happened.

Andy: The summer of 2023, we were acquired by Insight Enterprises, who are a NASDAQ-listed US business. We immediately found a synergy with them, in terms of their values and what they were looking to build, and how they saw us playing a really key part in their EMEA business. Like a match made in heaven, really.

BGF were always there behind the scenes, during the exit — really, really key in the negotiations as well, making sure that the deal that was put together was absolutely the right deal, and that really mattered. And it was a real thrill to actually see that deal through, to sign on the dotted line.

Vlad: On the day you sign, it’s mixed feelings. But you’re quite excited because it’s a new journey. And the good news is we’re still keeping in touch with BGF. We call each other, we ask for advice.

None of us retired. We are here. We are full of energy. We want to see this company growing, moving more into the AI space. We’re talking with one of the largest companies in the world now. And it’s going to be very exciting.