Redsquid has acquired ARK ICT, a Spalding, Lincolnshire-based IT support specialist serving more than 200 education customers and 100 local SMEs, for an undisclosed sum; the acquisition is Redsquid's 17th to date, its third in 2026, and pushes the group's headcount to 270 and pro-forma revenues to £46 million.

Redsquid Communications Ltd (Companies House no. 04968485) is a Borehamwood, Hertfordshire-headquartered managed service provider and MSSP, founded in 2006 by CEO Sohin Raithatha. The group is privately held, operating without PE institutional backing, and doubled revenue and EBITDA in FY2025 through a combination of organic growth and acquisition, reaching £46 million in pro-forma revenue across 270 employees.

Redsquid's stated £250 million revenue target was established in April 2026 alongside the appointment of former Daisy exec Dave McGinn as chairman. ARK ICT is a Spalding, Lincolnshire-based IT support specialist employing an average of 50 staff in FY2025, with Microsoft, Dynabook, Datto and Benq as key vendor relationships.

The structural driver is the fragmentation of UK K-12 IT support, where thousands of schools are served by small, single-site firms with limited vendor relationships, no cybersecurity specialism and no ability to scale alongside growing device and cloud management demands.

By acquiring Partnership Education in April 2026 and ARK ICT in August 2026, its two largest headcount acquisitions, Redsquid has built critical mass in the education vertical that smaller competitors cannot replicate. Education MSPs are particularly acquisition-attractive: schools have high device counts, recurring cloud licensing requirements, predictable annual budget cycles and low switching propensity once deeply integrated.

The £250 million target implies Redsquid needs to increase revenue approximately five-fold from its current £46 million base, at its current acquisition cadence, this implies either a significant acceleration in deal size, a PE capital event, or both.

For the sector, Redsquid's owner-operator-funded buy-and-build without institutional capital is increasingly rare in UK MSP M&A where PE-backed platforms dominate. Its B Corp status and cultural alignment framing attract founder-run sellers unwilling to transact with private equity acquirers.

Source: channelweb.co.uk / itchanneloxygen.com / find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk / omdia.tech.informa.com