About us
The group behind the companies.
Next2Group brings good UK technology businesses together under long-term ownership. Each one keeps what makes it work and gains what's hard to build alone.
Why Next2Group exists
Good businesses deserve good homes.
Next2Group was founded by Deklan van de Laarschot, who built Next2IT into a 24×7 managed service provider trusted by some of the UK's most demanding organisations, and Next2Software into the engineering house alongside it. The group formalises what made those businesses work: plain dealing, people-first service, and infrastructure that runs around the clock.
Plenty of owners of good UK technology businesses reach a point where they want to step back, de-risk, or find a partner for the next stage. Next2Group exists to be the home they'd choose: one that keeps the team, keeps the brand, and builds on what's already there.
For the people who back us, that same discipline is the investment case: essential services, recurring relationships, and businesses made stronger by what the group shares rather than hollowed out by it.
What we believe
Four principles, applied everywhere
Plain dealing
We say what we'll do and then do it. That applies to acquisitions, to service delivery and to how we report to the people who back us.
People first
Technology businesses are their people. Companies join the group because of their teams, and we keep investing in those teams because that's where the value lives.
Quality over scale
We'd rather own a small number of excellent businesses than a long list of average ones. Every acquisition has to make the group better, not just bigger.
Long-term ownership
Companies join the group to stay, which means decisions get made with the next decade in mind.
How the group works
Stronger together, independent by design
Independent brands
Each company keeps its own name, identity and client relationships. The group stands behind them; it doesn't replace them.
Shared 24×7 operations
Round-the-clock monitoring, security and support run within the group and are available to every company in it. Most independent businesses could never justify building this themselves.
Shared standards
One bar for engineering quality, service and honesty across the group. Clients of any group company should feel the same care whichever door they came in through.
For investors
A patient, disciplined group
Next2Group brings together UK IT services and software businesses. These are sectors where demand is structural, relationships are long, and the quality of your operations decides whether clients stay. The group grows carefully, integrates only what makes its companies stronger, and holds for the long term.
If you'd like to understand the group, the pipeline and where it's heading, we're straightforward to talk to.
Want to see the companies?
Meet the businesses that make up the group today, and the standard anything that joins later will be held to.