One of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies, MVF (mvfglobal.com), has announced that Bridgepoint Development Capital (‘BDC’) has taken a 40% stake in the business to facilitate accelerated growth, potential acquisitions and continued international expansion.

Founded five years ago, MVF has become one of the UK's most prominent growth businesses, winning a Queen's Award for Enterprise last year, branded the fastest growing tech company in the UK in 2013 by the Sunday Times Tech Track, and voted in the top twenty places to work in London by the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For poll.

MVF specialises in online customer acquisition and lead generation. The business uses proprietary technology, data driven analytics and in-house digital marketing expertise to provide some of the world's leading brands with high volumes of new customers that generate a strong return on investment. MVF's leading marketplaces help companies connect with new customers in multiple industry verticals including, amongst others, B2B (ExpertMarket.co.uk and ApprovedIndex.co.uk ), international removals (MoveHub.com), and green technology (TheEcoExperts.co.uk ). The UK online lead generation market alone is estimated at c. $200m and has grown at an annual compound growth rate of 22% since 2008.

Titus Sharpe, CEO of MVF comments: 'We are delighted to partner with Bridgepoint who will help take MVF to the next level. Bridgepoint has proved to be the perfect match for MVF because they understand the company vision and culture and have the financial capability and international reach to support the continued growth of the business. All five founders are still invested in MVF and it was important for us to maintain our unique values that have made MVF so successful, while getting a partner to help with our expansion.'

Robin Lawson, director of Bridgepoint Development Capital, said: 'We look forward to partnering with management to support them in developing the business through the company's next phase of growth. MVF has already expanded rapidly thanks to its strong points of difference and a management team with a proven track record in the online lead generation sector. We believe that growth will continue to accelerate as the business deepens its presence in existing industry sectors, adds new ones and expands internationally.'

Digital advertising spend is a $146bn global market which is anticipated to grow at 15% pa to 2018 taking digital's share of total advertising spend from 26% today to 36% by 2018. Market growth is being driven, in large part, by very significant growth in digital advertising spend on mobile, an area where MVF has strong expertise. Growth in digital advertising spend and the complexity created by trends such as the rapid growth of mobile advertising, the changing advertising technology landscape and the growth of new advertising channels such as social media is driving a strong demand for outsourced online lead generation to digital specialists like MVF.

Debt for the transaction was provided by HSBC. Advisers involved in the transaction included:

- for MVF: Cavendish (corporate finance), Squire Patton Boggs (legal)

- for BDC: GP Bullhound (corporate finance), Travers Smith (legal), E&Y (financial due diligence), CIL (commercial due diligence), Intuitus (IT due diligence).