Bath-based IT services company Cloud Direct has secured £1.5m of equity funding from three of the UK’s highest-profile investors, including Saracens Rugby Club chairman Nigel Wray.
The investment is the cloud broker’s third so far this year and takes its total funding to £2.74m. It will accelerate its sales and marketing, allow it open a London office and acquire a complementary business.
Joining Mr Wray, who is widely regarded as one of the UK’s most successful backers of small, tech businesses, in the investment are Rob Giles, director of UK smaller companies at Henderson Global Investors, and Jamie Brooke, Corporate Fund Manager at Henderson. 
Cloud Direct, based in The Tramshed in Walcot Street, says its packaged cloud services provide the antidote to traditional IT which free-up businesses to compete and grow by driving better business continuity, productivity and infrastructure delivery.
It has already helped 4,000 UK organisations move to the cloud safely and easily.
The firm was launched in 2003 by entrepreneur Brett Raynes, pictured, who has extensive experience of founding and running technology businesses in the UK and abroad.
Mr Wray said: “When you invest in a company, you’re investing in its people. This year, Brett ran the Marathon des Sable – 156 miles across the shifting Sahara in what The Discovery Channel calls ‘the toughest footrace on earth’.
“If Brett’s focus and determination is anything to go by, we’ve made a very solid investment. I’m thrilled.”
