Puma Private Equity invests £5m into developer marketplace, Deazy

Founded in 2016, Deazy connects businesses with high-quality development teams. It works with handpicked teams comprising more than 3,000 developers, providing broad technical expertise and greater capacity and flexibility.

Deazy will use the funding to scale its commercial teams to accelerate growth, double down on its platform vision and further build out its development teams.

Deazy grew by 2.5x in 2021, an increase attributable to its model, technology and ability to execute along with the increasing demand for developers globally following the pandemic. In addition, the IR35 legislation change has made it more challenging for companies to access software developers, and Deazy’s compatibility with this is a key advantage.

The business’s clients range from enterprises to VC-backed scale-ups and some of Europe’s biggest agencies. It is about to complete its transition to enable a self-serve platform-based experience, meaning every project and interaction will be managed via the Deazy platform, enabling a more efficient and scalable model.

This investment round will enable Deazy to scale out a team to drive even faster growth in a high demand segment for development talent. Deazy also plans to hire a Chief Product Officer with high profile marketplace credentials to sustain the delivery of a market-leading platform experience.

“There has long been a shortage of development talent around the world, but this has only accelerated sharply since the pandemic and the subsequent focus on digital transformation. The investment from Puma Private Equity will enable us to scale our commercial teams on both sides of the marketplace and take our platform experience to the next level.”

Andy Peddar, CEO and co-founder of Deazy

“This is a true moment in time for Deazy,” continued Andy. “Our shift to a platform and marketplace business has opened up incredible opportunities for our clients and delivery partners, and in doing so, also for Deazy as we bring efficiencies to a global problem. Over the next 12 months, we want to scale significantly into this opportunity without compromising on the cultural values or trusted partnerships we’ve built to date.”

“The global demand for developers is vastly outstripping supply, which is what made Deazy such a compelling proposition for us. Deazy connects companies to software developers with a differentiated strategy that has delivered impressive growth to date.

“Andy has built a fantastic team and platform with an inherently scalable model, and the business has an attractive opportunity to capitalise on strong market fundamentals. We are excited to partner with the Deazy team, working together to grow and develop the business during the next stage of their journey.”

Kelvin Reader, Investment Manager

Congratulations to Kelvin Reader, Benedict Leslie and Henri Songeur for leading this transaction, supported by Charles Russell Speechlys, Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP and Hulacorn.