business

Bloom Hits 100 Employee Milestone, As Procurement Specialist Continues To Blossom

Bloom – the tech-led procurement specialist – has broken through the 100 employee mark for the first time, as the company continues to go from strength-to-strength two years on from receiving a £14 million investment from the UK and Ireland’s largest and most experienced growth capital investor, BGF.

The company has accelerated its growth ambitions, increasing turnover by nearly a quarter (22%) to £273 million, while growing its workforce by 55%.

This follows a spate of senior hires who have joined Amabel Grant, CEO. These include: Sam Peachey (CFO), former CFO at digital self-service platform, QikServe; Pamela Lamming (Chief People Officer), who has over 30 years’ experience in the HR industry; and Selena Cooper (CGO), who has implemented far-reaching sales growth and transformation change within both private and public markets.

Their appointments complement other senior hires, who bring a wealth of experience across areas such as digital transformation and transforming high growth, technology-led SMEs.

Bloom, which is the UK’s only public sector procurement marketplace offering an end-to-end managed service procurement solution, has also invested significantly in skills across developers, data engineering, as well as software engineering. This has allowed the North East-based business to focus on the research and development of its platform, including the introduction of generative AI tooling, with a new proprietary product set to launch in early 2024.

Adam Jacobs

Adam Jacobs, Founder of Bloom and winner of the Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Award (North East), commented:
“Our people are central to our success. Our aim, therefore, is to attract a multiplicity of skills, creating a team that really believes in our purpose and takes great care in achieving our strategic objectives, as well as having a tangible impact on people’s lives.

“By strengthening our senior management team, and bringing in rich talent across the business, we have been able to grow, evolve, and scale the business.

“What has also been key to our growth is the ongoing investment in our proprietary technology. By developing and optimising our product offering, we have been able to hone our service delivery model to create significant operational efficiencies and growth opportunities.”

In the last 12 months, Bloom has featured in the LDC Top 50 and The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, recognising the impact of activity in this area, as well as achieving the ‘Advanced Standard’ Good Work Pledge accreditation by North East Combined Authority and the EcoVadis silver rating, which was awarded in June. Workplace initiatives implemented by the company, include: the launch of a learning management systems and ‘Coffee Academies’, a newly developed leadership programme, a comprehensive benefits package, as well as the launch of a sustainability strategy. In the last two years, the company has also become a Real Living Wage employer, as well as signing the Armed Forces Covenant.

Bloom, which provides a dynamic and open access marketplace for the provision of professional services to the UK public sector, received a significant investment from BGF in 2021 to support its ambitious growth plans.

Barry Jackson, investor and Head of Yorkshire and the North East at BGF, said:
“Bloom has demonstrated in the last two years the potential that can be realised by remaining faithful to your core ethos, while building a hugely talented team that has the strength and depth to develop and continue to evolve a market leading offering. As such, Bloom has been able to scale through its technology – proprietary software that lays the foundation for strong and sustainable growth in a market ripe for change.”