The company

Founded in 2008, CloserStill operates content-led exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe, the US and the Far East. The firm’s success is down to its ability to consistently provide world-class content and attract large, high-value audiences, with The London Vet Show, the Pharmacy Show, Learning Technologies, Cloud Expo Europe, Data Centre World, Cloud Expo and Data Centre Asia in Singapore, in its portfolio.

The Inflexion investment

During the investment period the business grew significantly, including successful expansion into Asia, Germany and the US. Inflexion supported the company’s acquisitive growth strategy, providing capital as well as M&A expertise to support eight acquisitions. Inflexion also worked with CloserStill to replicate its exhibitions internationally, with the launch of the first successful shows in the US (New York Vet) and Hong Kong (Cloud Asia). Overall, during Inflexion’s investment the number of exhibitions grew by nearly 50% and the proportion of international revenues grew from 20% to 50%.

The Inflexion difference

Inflexion’s international reach made the firm the natural partner for CloserStill’s global ambitions. We supported management to continue its successful strategy of geo-cloning across three continents, which supported growth in exhibitors and delegates. We also used our M&A experience to back eight acquisitions during our partnership, including Learning 2018 in the US and iLearning Forum in France.

Inflexion have been a tremendous backer, giving us just the right amount of support to grow our business internationally both through taking existing UK exhibitions overseas and through acquisitions. Their in-country experts were incredibly valuable, with their input enabling us to win our largest order in the history of our Asian business.

Phil Soar,

Executive Chairman and CEO, CloserStill Media