Growth and jobs at Finance Yorkshire-backed Vapour Cloud

Jason Sharp and Tim Mercer, Vapour Cloud

Technology provider Vapour Cloud has expanded to new premises in West Yorkshire after reporting turnover of more than £1 million in its third year of trading.

The company, which specialises in cloud-based communications solutions, has moved to a two-storey property in Elland which provides more office space and demonstration rooms from which to showcase Vapour’s services to clients.

Launched in July 2013, Vapour Cloud’s growth has been supported by investment from Finance Yorkshire’s seedcorn fund totalling £1.3m. In three years, the business has increased job numbers from three to 26 and quadrupled its turnover.

CEO and co-founder Tim Mercer said: “We have developed and built our business because of the potential we recognised in cloud-based services from an early stage. More companies are changing their technology policies and moving to cloud or an element of it and we are anticipating further growth on the back of this trend.”

Vapour Cloud merged with another cloud services provider, EveryCloud, a year ago to further consolidate its offer to businesses. The company provides services to SMEs via a partner network of resellers as well as working direct with clients.

Recent major contract wins include work with Egton, one of the UK’s leading providers of healthcare technology and solutions. Vapour is supporting Egton in delivering next-generation voice services to its client base, using cloud-based technology.

Vapour has also partnered with Leeds-based education technology company ICT4Collaboration to roll out a cloud-based voice network to schools and other education organisations.

Tim added: “With Finance Yorkshire’s backing we have grown from being a start-up to a fully-fledged business with an excellent team and solid reputation for what we do. Our clients recognise we have the knowledge to deliver the right solutions for their businesses supported by unrivalled levels of customer care and service.”

David Best, investment manager at Finance Yorkshire, said: “Earlier this year, Vapour Cloud was able to attract £1m of third party support from new funders who share our belief in the team’s ability to offer differentiated, bespoke solutions to clients’ varying data, voice and cloud requirements. We are pleased our investment has enabled Vapour to grow year on year, creating valuable jobs in the region.”

Vapour Cloud was previously located at Woodvale Business Park in Brighouse

Note: this news article is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire