A YORK company has scored a double by supplying technology to the World Cup in Qatar as it receives a ‘multi-million pound’ investment.

Bosses at Cellhire, describe the investment from private equity firm LDC as ‘significant’, saying it will accelerate the growth of the company, founded in 1987, and expand its range of products and services.

Cellhire, based at Park House, Clifton Park, offers telephony and internet related services to business customers. It works with UK mobile network operators Vodafone, O2 and EE and has 40 other similar partners globally.

CEO Martyn Stevens says some 20 staff will be taken on, adding to the firm’s existing 80, with sought roles in sales, sales support, marketing, IT developers and technical sales support.

In addition to the UK, Cellhire has offices in the US, France, Germany and Japan. Most of the new roles will be in the UK and France.

It also serves customers using third party distributors.

In recent years, Cellhire has developed its Atlas billing and SIM management platform as well as expanded its machine to machine and Internet of Things capabilities.

This has underpinned strong growth with company turnover increasing by 42 per cent between 2019 and 2022, from £19.1 million to £27.1m.

Mr Stevens says growth is being fuelled by a need for better security, which his systems can offer by using fixed IP connectivity.

The business is also benefitting from the return of events such as sport after the pandemic-related lockdowns.

He said: “This year, we will be providing services for the FIFA world cup in Qatar. This is the first time we have operated in the Middle East. We will be working with Ooredoo, a Qatari mobile network operator. We will be providing SIMS and devices to the media, teams and sponsors. It’s a multi-million deal as well, that will generate close to £2m of revenue.”

The company provided similar services to the Winter Olympics in China earlier this year.

Tim Williams, Chairman at Cellhire, said, “Our team has worked incredibly hard over the last couple of years to strengthen our range of products and services. With LDC’s support we’re now at an exciting stage of our journey to broaden our proposition through technology and service.”

Dan Smith, Partner and Head of Yorkshire at LDC, added, “We are excited to be backing Tim, Martyn and their team. They are at the forefront of innovation in the sector and we see there is huge scope to grow the business particularly as the business develops its IoT offering and the market opens up to a growing number of use cases. We’re looking forward to supporting them as they continue to expand their proposition across the world.”