LDC Top 50 2026
Steve Harris
CEO
CloudClevr
Steve Harris built his “one-stop shop” technology provider by buying four best-in-class companies from around the UK between 2022 and 2024.
CloudClevr, which was formed using funding from Rigby Group, the investment arm of multimillionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Rigby, is a trusted IT partner for mid-market businesses across the UK. The business is heading for an annualised run-rate of £70 million by 2029, both through further acquisitions and organic growth. “We’ll aim to acquire two companies a year,” says Steve. Artificial intelligence is a growth area for the business. “Businesses are just waking up to what it can do,” he says.
We’ll double turnover in three years through a mixture of acquisitions and organic double-digit growth.”
Q&A
How have you grown CloudClevr?
When I joined as CEO the company was a blank piece of paper. I wrote the investment thesis and we presented it to the Rigby Group in August 2022, securing the funding to make the acquisitions that formed CloudClevr. We bought four companies, like raw ingredients added to our pot: Wakefield-based NGC Networks, which became our northern hub; 4Sight Communications in London, which gave us access to the public sector; Cheltenham-based Bamboo Technology Group, which is our hub in the Midlands and the West; and Twisted Fish IT, a Microsoft cloud provider. It was a big job bringing them all together but this year the group will reach £35 million in turnover.
What does the future hold?
We’ll double turnover in three years through a mixture of acquisitions and organic double-digit growth. I sold my last business in 2016 so I’m already financially secure. I want to build something successful that all our team are proud of. Some people just build a business to sell but that’s not me.
How did you get into the technology sector?
In the late nineties, I was lucky enough to do work experience at Nortel, a big Canadian communications company. They took me on once I’d finished my marketing degree and I spent nine years there and learned a lot. I also saw how quickly things can change in technology. There were a lot of paper millionaires in that business – people remortgaging their houses to buy stock. When the dotcom bubble burst, its share price went from C$124 in 2000 to C$0.50.
