The Amtivo Group acquires Certification Europe

News

05 Mar 2020

Certification Europe (CE) has joined the British Assessment Bureau (BAB), myActiv and Equas Consulting, providing greater international reach for the Amtivo Group.

Established in 1999 and head officed in Dublin, CE has offices in Japan, Italy and the UK, establishing an impressive international footprint for the Amtivo Group in key markets. Its ethos of providing clients with assurance that goes beyond simply ticking boxes complements the innovative culture within the Amtivo Group.

On an annual basis, CE performs more than ten thousand assessments for its customers, which include micro-enterprises as well as multinationals, Government Departments and State Bodies. This adds meaningful additional scale to the Amtivo Group and, as the leader in IT and Data security in its core market, CE will support the continued growth of the Amtivo Group in this key area. CE also provides a range of training and inspection services to blue chip customers in both the public and private sectors in Ireland.

During 2019 we acquired and integrated both the ACS Registrars and Avalon Certification brands within BAB in the UK, establishing the largest and fastest growing certification body in our market. As we enter 2020, we now have an international ‘hub’ to increase our geographical footprint but also to provide real market leadership in IT and Data security, a core focus for us. Combining that with the technology enablement capability of myActiv enables us to provide a unique suite of certification and associated services to our customers around the world.

Mike Tims - CEO, Amtivo

Having built a market leading ISO certification, Training and Inspection business over the last 20 years, we are delighted to be joining the Amtivo Group. We bring access to several core markets, plus genuine leadership, skillset and knowledge in the key area of IT and Data security. We look forward to combining this with Amtivo’s unique go-to-market approach and technology, which will help us provide an even better and wider variety of services to our customers and provides us with an innovate and market leading approach to swiftly scaling our international operations.

Michael Brophy - CEO, CE

Since our acquisition of BAB in January 2018 the business has grown organically at >25% per annum and has completed three strategic acquisitions in the UK to create the Amtivo Group. The investment into CE provides Amtivo with an international base, adding another high-quality brand to our portfolio, whilst helping us become the pre-eminent provider of ISO services to SMEs in the UK and Ireland.

Kishan Chotai - Director, August Equity

The Amtivo Group was advised by Grant Thornton (Financial DD and Tax DD) and DLA Piper (Legals).