Earlier this year Microsoft cloud specialist Rapid Circle announced a double acquisition, of Portiva and Insync Technology. Less than six months after that acquisition, Rapid Circle now reports that it is acquiring Adopt & Embrace. Together with its existing offerings, this acquisition should bring Rapid Circle one step closer to its ambition of becoming a global Microsoft specialist within five to seven years.
Rapid Circle was in a good position even before its acquisition of Portiva and Insync Technology earlier this year. In 2020 the company was the first Dutch organization to be named Worldwide Microsoft Partner of the Year. Yet there is more in the works for Rapid Circle. An investment from private equity firm Mentha Capital opened up possibilities to take bigger steps. Besides growing organically (at about 30 percent per year), Rapid Circle could and can now grow non-organically, through acquisitions.
Acquisitions are also simply necessary if the company is to achieve the ambition outlined in the introduction. Part of that ambition is for Rapid Circle to be able to offer services worldwide in all areas of the Microsoft portfolio. Since that portfolio is very large and dynamic, Rapid Circle cannot add it all organically within those five to seven years.
Adopt & Embrace
With the acquisition of Portiva, Rapid Circle gained knowledge and expertise in the areas of collaboration and security. Insync Technology in turn brought expertise around Unified Communications and Microsoft Teams to the table. However, both these companies focus mainly on technology and tools. That’s not all there is to transitioning to the cloud. You also have to deal with end users who have to adopt the new technology and tools. Given its name, it won’t surprise you that Adopt & Embrace is concerned with just that.
Like Insync Technology, Adopt & Embrace is an Australian company. It focuses on the human aspect of technology and its adoption. Part of this is guiding people and organizations through the changes associated with the move to the cloud and thus new technology. In other words, it is also about change management. Microsoft has already put Adopt & Embrace in the spotlight itself. It was the first company worldwide to receive Microsoft’s Adoption & Change Management Advanced Specialization. Rapid Circle has since also achieved this certification. As such, it already had expertise in this field before the acquisition, and expands that via this acquisition.
Ambition
As indicated, the acquisition of Adopt & Embrace should be seen in the light of Rapid Circle’s ambition. It wants to grow into a global Microsoft specialist with over 100 million euro turnover and 1000 employees. With the acquisitions made earlier this year, the company employed a total of 350 Microsoft experts. So there are now more to come. We have no information at the moment about the exact number that will be added. In any case, there is still some work to be done before Rapid Circle reaches the 1,000 employee mark. Further acquisitions are therefore likely.
It will also be interesting to see how Rapid Circle will cross the borders of Australia and the Netherlands. The fact that Adopt & Embrace is the second Australian acquisition after Insync Technology is not really surprising by the way. Rapid Circle already had an office in Australia before the acquisition of Insync Technology, in Melbourne to be precise. Adopt & Embrace is based in Brisbane, so now Rapid Circle has offices in Amsterdam, The Hague, Nieuwegein, Pune, Brisbane and Melbourne.
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